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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2018‒07‒09
ten papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Emilio Depetris-Chauvin; Ruben Durante; Filipe R. Campante |
| Abstract: | We examine whether shared collective experiences can help build a national identity, by looking at the impact of national football teams’ victories in sub- Saharan Africa. Combining individual survey data with information on official matches played between 2000 and 2015, we find that individuals interviewed in the days after a victory of their country’s national team are less likely to identify with their ethnic group than with the country as a whole and more likely to trust people of other ethnicities than those interviewed just before. The effect is sizable and robust and is not explained by generic euphoria or optimism. Crucially, we find that national victories not only affect attitudes but also reduce violence: using plausibly exogenous variation from close qualifications to the African Cup of Nations, we find that countries that (barely) qualified experience significantly less conflict in the following six months than countries that (barely) did not. Our findings indicate that, even when divisions are deeply rooted, shared experiences can work as an effective nation-building tool, bridge cleavages, and have a tangible effect on violence. |
| JEL: | O12 |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24666&r=soc |
| By: | Fabrice Murtin (OECD); Lara Fleischer (OECD); Vincent Siegerink (OECD); Arnstein Aassve (Bocconi University); Yann Algan (Sciences Po, Paris); Romina Boarini (OECD); Santiago González (OECD); Zsuzsanna Lonti (OECD); Gianluca Grimalda (Kiel University); Rafael Hortala Vallve (London School of Economics); Soonhee Kim (Korea Development Institute); David Lee (Korea Development Institute); Louis Putterman (Brown university); Conal Smith (OECD) |
| Abstract: | This paper describes the results of an international initiative on trust (Trustlab) run in six OECD countries between November 2016 and November 2017 (France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Slovenia and the United States). Trustlab combines cutting-edge techniques drawn from behavioural science and experimental economics with an extensive survey on the policy and contextual determinants of trust in others and trust in institutions, administered to representative samples of participants. The main results are as follows: 1) Self-reported measures of trust in institutions are validated experimentally, 2) Self-reported measures of trust in others capture a belief about trustworthiness (as well as altruistic preferences), whereas experimental measures rather capture willingness to cooperate and one’s own trustworthiness. Therefore, both measures are loosely related, and should be considered complementary rather than substitutes; 3) Perceptions of institutional performance strongly correlate with both trust in government and trust in others; 4) Perceived government integrity is the strongest determinant of trust in government; 5) In addition to indicators associated with social capital, such as neighbourhood connectedness and attitudes towards immigration, perceived satisfaction with public services, social preferences and expectations matter for trust in others; 6) There is a large scope for policy action, as an increase in all significant determinants of trust in government by one standard deviation may be conducive to an increase in trust by 30 to 60%. |
| Keywords: | cooperative games, implicit association test, no cooperative games, trust, trust in institutions |
| Date: | 2018–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stdaaa:2018/2-en&r=soc |
| By: | Catia Batista; Pedro Vicente; Marcel Fafchamps |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study information sharing through text messages among rural Mozambicans with access to mobile money. For this purpose, we conducted a lab-in-the-field experiment involving exogeneously assigned information links. In the base game mobile money users receive an SMS containing information on how to redeem a voucher for mobile money. They are then given an opportunity to share this information with other subjects. We find that participants have a low propensity to redeem the voucher. They nonetheless share the information with others, and many subjects share information they do not use themselves, consistent with warm glow. We observe that there is more information sharing when communication is entirely anonymous, and we uncover no evidence of homophily in information sharing. We introduce various treatments: varying the cost of information sharing; being shamed for not sending vouchers; and allowing subjects to appropriate (part of) the value of the shared information. All these treatments decrease information sharing. The main implication is that, to encourage information sharing, the best is to keep it simple. |
| Keywords: | Information, lab-in-the-field experiment, mobile money, Mozambique, NOVAFRICA, social networks |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unl:novafr:wp1801&r=soc |
| By: | Konstantin Buechel, Maximilian von Ehrlich |
| Abstract: | Social interactions are considered pivotal to urban agglomeration forces. This study employs a unique dataset on mobile phone calls to examine how social interactions differ across cities and peripheral areas. We first show that geographical distance is highly detrimental to interpersonal exchange. We then reveal that individuals residing in high-density locations do not benefit from larger social networks, but from a more efficient structure in terms of higher matching quality and lower clustering. These results are derived from two complementary approaches: Based on a link formation model, we examine how geographical distance, network overlap, and sociodemographic (dis)similarities impact the likelihood that two agents interact. We further decompose the effects from individual, location, and time specific determinants on micro-level network measures by exploiting information on mobile phone users who change their place of residence. |
| Keywords: | Social Interactions; Agglomeration Externalities; Network Analysis; Sorting |
| JEL: | R1 R23 Z13 D85 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdv:wpaper:credresearchpaper13&r=soc |
| By: | Markus Leibrecht (WIFO); Hans Pitlik (WIFO) |
| Abstract: | While trust in the business sector is crucial for well-functioning markets, there is surprisingly little empirical work on its sources. Available research recognises social trust as a major force explaining confidence in political institutions. Regulation is frequently advocated to foster trust in companies as it is supposed to reduce scope for opportunistic behaviour. Based on individual level data from World Values Survey, European Values Studies and economic regulation data from the Economic Freedom of the World project the paper empirically investigates joint effects of social trust, intensity and quality of regulation on public trust in major companies. Our findings suggest that it is not the intensity of economic regulation per se which matters for trust in companies but that the impartiality with which rules are enforced is decisive, even when we control for social trust. Trust in business can be facilitated by an implicit guarantee of governments to fair and impartial treatment. |
| Keywords: | Social Trust, Trust in Companies, Economic Regulation, World Values Survey |
| Date: | 2018–05–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2018:i:564&r=soc |
| By: | Jasmine Mondolo (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | In the last fifteen years, the literature on international economics and international business has been paying increasing attention to informal institutions and to how they affect a variety of economic variables, inward FDI in particular. The main aims of this work are: to shed more light on a puzzling, elusive concept -informal institutions- also by drawing comparisons with related constructs; to overview the main types of informal institution and their effects on FDI inflows; to conduct a meta-analysis to explore the heterogeneity across empirical studies focusing on the effects of informal institutions on FDI inflows. The main findings of the present work are as follows: according to most of the existing literature, informal institutions, such as trust, social networks and corruption, matter for the purpose of attracting FDI. The sign is significantly determined by the type of informal institution considered. In particular, social networks and factors typically facilitating or in favour of FDI - such as trust and a positive attitude to liberalism - have a significant and positive impact on inward FDI, and this especially holds when the host country is a developing economy. |
| Keywords: | informal institutions, FDI, systematic review |
| JEL: | A13 D02 F21 |
| Date: | 2018–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pad:wpaper:0218&r=soc |
| By: | Eugen Dimant (University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a novel experimental design to study the contagion of pro- and antisocial behavior and the role of social proximity among peers. Across systematic variations thereof, we find that anti-social behavior is generally more contagious than pro-social behavior. Surprisingly, we also find that social proximity amplifies the contagion of anti-social behavior more strongly than the contagion of pro-social behavior, and that anti-social individuals are most susceptible to behavioral contagion of other anti-social peers. These findings paired with the methodological contribution are informative for the design of effective norm-based policy interventions directed at facilitating (reducing) pro- (anti-)social behavior in social and economic environments. |
| Keywords: | Behavioral Contagion, Peer Effects, Anti-Social & Pro-Social Behavior |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcdx:2018-04&r=soc |
| By: | Fetzer, Thiemo (University of Warwick); Kyburz, Stephan (Center for Global Development) |
| Abstract: | Can institutionalized transfers of resource rents be a source of civil conflict? Are cohesive institutions better in managing distributive conflicts? We study these questions exploiting exogenous variation in revenue disbursements to local governments together with new data on local democratic institutions in Nigeria. We make three contributions. First, we document the existence of a strong link between rents and conflict far away from the location of the actual resource. Second, we show that distributive conflict is highly organized involving political militias and concentrated in the extent to which local governments are non-cohesive. Third, we show that democratic practice in form having elected local governments significantly weakens the causal link between rents and political violence. We document that elections (vis-a-vis appointments), by producing more cohesive institutions, vastly limit the extent to which distributional conflict between groups breaks out following shocks to the available rents. Throughout, we confirm these findings using individual level survey data. |
| Keywords: | conflict ; ethnicity ; natural resources ;political economy ; commodity prices |
| JEL: | Q33 O13 N52 R11 L71 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1166&r=soc |
| By: | Adena, Maja; Alizade, Jeyhun; Bohner, Frauke; Harke, Julian; Mesters, Fabio |
| Abstract: | In an experiment, we test the impact of quality certificates on donations to a charity. Compared to the control group, participants presented with a quality certificate chose higher donations by around 10% and reported higher trust towards the same charity. The choice of donation values over time shows strong persistence such that the difference between the two groups remained even after all participants were informed about the certificate. Since the initially uninformed donors did not adjust their donations sufficiently upwards, we conclude that quality certification is less likely to affect giving of existing donors. Finally, we find no significant effect of information about certificate fees. |
| Keywords: | non-profit certification,charitable giving,experiment,trust |
| JEL: | D64 C99 D81 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbeoc:spii2017302r&r=soc |
| By: | Aubrey D. Tabuga |
| Abstract: | Analyzing future migration intentions is essential to understanding how migration perpetuates. International migration is such a complex and nuanced phenomenon that those who desire to participate in it go through an elaborate process of intention-formation, planning, and decisionmaking. And yet the literature on migration intentions rarely view it in such manner. Instead, many studies treat migration decisionmaking as a binary stay-or-leave variable. Moreover, the lens more commonly implemented is economic; there is less focus on the social dimensions of migration decisions. This analysis seeks to explain the influence of social networks on the decisiveness to migrate while controlling for the effects of economic forces, subjective perceptions on well-being, and demographic factors. Using information gathered from individuals residing within a village with high migration incidence, this study found that differentiating migrant networks into the degree of association or strength of ties is crucial because different networks have different effects. Furthermore, considering the individuals’ current level in the migration decisionmaking process is also deemed crucial in analyzing the factors that influence the decision. For instance, migrant networks particularly the closest of kin are important in the advanced phase of concrete migration planning, and not in the initial stage. Know more about the results of the study in this paper. |
| Keywords: | migration, , migration intention, migration decisionmaking, Philippine migration, generalized ordered logit, tie strength, social networks |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2018-06&r=soc |