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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2018‒03‒19
ten papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Nigus, Halefom (UNU-MERIT); Nillesen, Eleonora (UNU-MERIT); Mohnen, Pierre (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | In this study, using data from lab-in-the-field experiment, we explore whether the introduction of weather index insurance crowds in or crowds out social capital in northern Ethiopia. We use contributions in the public good game as a measure of social capital. We find that weather index insurance crowds out social capital. The free-riding problem created by the positive externality of weather index insurance and development of self-sufficiency behaviour are found to be the causal mechanisms behind the crowding out phenomenon. Our results indicate that formal insurance mechanisms do not occur in a vacuum and may have unintended effects. Hence, this study suggests that novel insurance product design and marketing strategies should be used to ameliorate such unintended effects. |
| Keywords: | Weather index insurance, social capital, public goods game, Ethiopia |
| JEL: | C93 G22 H41 O17 |
| Date: | 2018–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2018007&r=soc |
| By: | Raffaella Coppier; Fabio Sabatini; Mauro Sodini |
| Abstract: | We develop an overlapping generations model to study how the interplay between social and human capital affects fertility. In a frame- work where families face a trade-off between the quantity and quality of children, we incorporate the assumption that social capital plays a key role in the accumulation of human capital. We show how the erosion of social capital can trigger a chain of reactions leading households to base their childbearing decisions on quantity, instead of quality, resulting in higher fertility. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, quantity-quality trade-off, human capital, education, social capital, trust. |
| JEL: | J13 Z1 Z13 |
| Date: | 2018–03–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2018_04&r=soc |
| By: | Jun-ichi Itaya; Chris Tsoukis |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how the presence of social capital affects the externality arising from status-seeking preference as a parable for inefficient antagonistic behavior. It is assumed that the stock of social capital is accumulating through joint social interaction between rational individuals who are forward looking. Using a differential game, we show that although the presence of social capital mitigates the tendency of overconsumption over time, social capital ends up declining to zero. It is also shown that the benefits from social capital enhance the motivation of individuals to accumulate social capital thereby leading to deter overaccumulation and thus possibly improving social welfare. |
| Keywords: | social capital, status externality, Markov perfect, equilibrium, differential game |
| JEL: | O40 Q33 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6820&r=soc |
| By: | Nicola Fontana; Tommaso Nannicini; Guido Tabellini |
| Abstract: | The Italian civil war and the Nazi occupation of Italy occurred at a critical juncture, just before the birth of a new democracy. We study the impact of these traumatic events by exploiting geographic heterogeneity in the duration and intensity of civil war, and the persistence of the battlefront along the “Gothic line” cutting through Northern-Central Italy. We find that the Communist Party gained votes in postwar elections where the Nazi occupation lasted longer, mainly at the expense of centrist parties. This effect persists until the late 1980s and appears to be driven by equally persistent changes in political attitudes. |
| JEL: | N00 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6838&r=soc |
| By: | Alberto Alesina (Harvard University [Cambridge], IGIER); Johann Harnoss (UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne); Hillel Rapoport (PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effect of immigration on attitudes to redistribution in Europe. Using data for 28 European countries from the European Social Survey, we .nd that native workers lower their support for redistribution if the share of immigration in their country is high. This effect is larger for individuals who hold negative views regarding immigration but is smaller when immigrants are culturally closer to natives and come from richer origin countries. The effect also varies with native workers’ and immigrants’ education. In particular, more educated natives (in terms of formal education but also job-specic human capital and ocupation task skill intensity) support more redistribution if immigrants are also relatively educated. To address endogeneity concerns, we restrict identification to within country and within country-occupation variation and also instrument immigration using a gravity model. Overall, our results show that the negative .First-order effect of immigration on attitudes to redistribution is relatively small and counterbalanced among skilled natives by positive second-order effects for the quality and diversity of immigration. |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01707760&r=soc |
| By: | Emily Breza; Arun G. Chandrasekhar; Alireza Tahbaz-Salehi |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the empirical content of one of the most prevalent assumptions in the economics of networks literature, namely the assumption that decision makers have full knowledge about the networks they interact on. Using network data from 75 villages, we ask 4,554 individuals to assess whether five randomly chosen pairs of households in their village are linked through financial, social, and informational relationships. We find that network knowledge is low and highly localized, declining steeply with the pair’s network distance to the respondent. 46% of respondents are not even able to offer a guess about the status of a potential link between a given pair of individuals. Even when willing to offer a guess, respondents can only correctly identify the links 37% of the time. We also find that a one-step increase in the social distance to the pair corresponds to a 10pp increase in the probability of misidentifying the link. We then investigate the theoretical implications of this assumption by showing that the predictions of various models change substantially if agents behave under the more realistic assumption of incomplete knowledge about the network. Taken together, our results suggest that the assumption of full network knowledge (i) may serve as a poor approximation to the real world and (ii) is not innocuous: allowing for incomplete network knowledge may have first-order implications for a range of qualitative and quantitative results in various contexts. |
| JEL: | C8 D8 D85 L14 O1 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24359&r=soc |
| By: | Maria D. C. GarciaAlonso; Zaki Wahhaj |
| Abstract: | We investigate within a model of cultural transmission the conditions under which increased social diversity within a population - e.g. due to the inflow of immigrants - raise the potential for conflict as opposed to harmonious social diversity. Drawing on evidence from psychological studies, we develop the concept of 'bridging identity', an individual trait that (i) directly affects utility in culturally diverse social groups but is immaterial in culturally homogeneous social groups; (ii) is fostered (probabilistically) in those born in culturally diverse social groups but not in those born in culturally homogeneous social groups. We find first, increased cultural diversity within a population can lead to more mixed social groups or increased segregation depending on the paceof change. This is in contrast to Schelling's models of residential segregation which would always predict increased segregation. Furthermore, a temporary negative shock to bridging identity can trigger a dynamic process of segregation in the form of outmigration from culturally diverse social groups. But, paradoxically, if the shock is severe enough, its effects are mitigated. |
| JEL: | D10 J13 J15 A14 Z1 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:1802&r=soc |
| By: | Leonie Kühl; Nora Szech |
| Abstract: | Cooperativeness among genetically unrelated humans remains a major puzzle in the social sciences. We explore the causal impact of physical distance on willingness to help. In a field setting, participants decide about supporting local refugees at the dispense of money to themselves. We vary physical distance only, and keep other factors such as cultural distance fixed. The data shows that an increase in local physical distance decreases willingness to donate. A laboratory experiment confirms this finding. We further explore the causal roles of exposure (in the field) and of larger distances (in the lab) with a total of 475 participants. |
| Keywords: | cooperativeness, physical distance, strangers, morally relevant behavior, local neighborhoods |
| JEL: | C91 C93 D64 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6825&r=soc |
| By: | Harounan Kazianga (Oklahoma State University); Zaki Wahhaj (University of Kent) |
| Abstract: | We present findings from a pilot study exploring whether and how existing ties between urban migrants and rural farmers may be used to provide the latter improved access to formal insurance. Urban migrants in Ouagadougou (the capital of Burkina Faso) originating from nearby villages were offered, at the prevailing market price, a rainfall index insurance product that can potentially protect their rural relatives from adverse weather shocks. The product had an uptake of 22% during the two-week subscription window. Uptake rates were higher by 17-22 ppts among urban migrants who were randomly offered an insurance policy that would make pay-outs directly to the intended beneficiary rather than the subscriber. We argue that rainfall index insurance can complement informal risk-sharing networks by mitigating problems of informational asymmetry and self-control issues. |
| Keywords: | Microinsurance markets, Indexed insurance, Rainfall, Migration, Informal insurance networks |
| JEL: | O15 O16 G21 |
| Date: | 2018–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:436&r=soc |
| By: | Isabel Schnabel; Hyun Song Shin |
| Abstract: | Money is a social convention where one party accepts it as payment in the expectation that others will do so too. Over the ages, various forms of private money have come and gone, giving way to central bank money. The reasons for the resilience of central bank money are of particular interest given current debates about cryptocurrencies and how far they will supplant central bank money. We draw lessons from the role of public deposit banks in the 1600s, which quelled the hyper-in‡flation in Europe during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). As the precursors of modern central banks, public deposit banks established trust in monetary exchange by making the value of money common knowledge. |
| Keywords: | Gresham's Law; debasement; common knowledge; central banks |
| JEL: | E42 E58 N13 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:698&r=soc |