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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2018‒07‒16
eleven papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Michele Battisti; Giovanni Peri; Agnese Romiti |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how the size of co-ethnic networks at the time of arrival affect the economic success of immigrants in Germany. Applying panel analysis with a large set of fixed effects and controls, we isolate the association between initial network size and long-run immigrant outcomes. We also look at those who were assigned to an initial location independently of their choice allows a causal interpretation of our estimates. We find that immigrants initially located in places with larger co-ethnic networks are more likely to be employed at first, but have a lower probability of investing in human capital. |
| Keywords: | networks, immigration, human capital, employment |
| JEL: | J24 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7084&r=soc |
| By: | Müller, Karsten (University of Warwick); Schwarz, Carlo (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the link between social media and hate crime using Facebook data. We study the case of Germany, where the recently emerged right-wing party Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) has developed a major social media presence. We show that right-wing anti-refugee sentiment on Facebook predicts violent crimes against refugees in otherwise similar municipalities with higher social media usage. To further establish causality, we exploit exogenous variation in major internet and Facebook outages, which fully undo the correlation between social media and hate crime. We further find that the effect decreases with distracting news events; increases with user network interactions; and does not hold for posts unrelated to refugees. Our results suggest that social media can act as a propagation mechanism between online hate speech and real-life violent crime.Keywords: social media, hate crime, minorities, Germany, AfD JEL Classification: D74, J15, Z10, D72, O35, N32, N34. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:373&r=soc |
| By: | Durand, Rodolphe; Mani, Dalhia |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate family firms’ position in the intercorporate ownership network. Rooting our predictions in the Behavioral Agency Model and a Network analytical framework, we predict and find that family involvement decreases the likelihood of business group affiliation and of cross-group ties leading to a lower embeddedness within the overall network. We predict and find the opposite effect for community involvement. We use the complete longitudinal dataset of publicly listed firms’ corporate ownership ties in India (2001, 2005, and 2009). Theoretical and substantive contributions are to research on family businesses and to research on interorganizational networks. |
| Keywords: | Family Firms; Community; Embeddedness; Network |
| JEL: | M10 |
| Date: | 2018–04–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:heccah:1275&r=soc |
| By: | Bezin, Emeline; Verdier, Thierry; Zenou, Yves |
| Abstract: | We develop a two-period overlapping generations model in which both the structure of the family and the decision to commit crime are endogenous and a culture of honesty is transmitted intergenerationally by families and peers. Having a father at home might be crucial to prevent susceptible boys from becoming criminals, as this facilitates the transmission of the honesty trait against criminal behavior. By "destroying" biparental families and putting fathers in prison, we show that more intense crime repression can backfire because it increases the possibility that criminals' sons become criminals themselves. Consistent with sociological disorganization theories of crime, the model also explains the emergence and persistence of urban ghettos characterized by a large proportion of broken families and high crime rates. This is because for children who come from these broken families, negative community experiences (peer effects) further encourage their criminal participation. Finally, we discuss the efficiency of location and family policies on long-term crime rates. |
| Keywords: | crime; neighborhood segregation; Social interactions |
| JEL: | J15 K42 Z13 |
| Date: | 2018–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13014&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 Classification: Q33, O13, N52, R11, L71 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:377&r=soc |
| By: | Fabian Kosse; Thomas Deckers; Pia Pinger; Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch; Armin Falk |
| Abstract: | This study presents descriptive and causal evidence on the role of social environment for the formation of prosociality. In a first step, we show that socioeconomic status (SES) as well as the intensity of mother-child interaction and mothers’ prosocial attitudes are systematically related to elementary school children's prosociality. In a second step, we present evidence on a randomly-assigned variation of the social environment, providing children with a mentor for the duration of one year. Our data include a two-year follow-up and reveal a significant and persistent increase in prosociality in the treatment relative to the control group. Moreover, enriching the social environment bears the potential to close the observed gap in prosociality between low and high SES children. A mediation analysis of the observed treatment effect suggests that prosociality develops in response to stimuli in the form of prosocial role models and intense social interactions. |
| Keywords: | formation of preferences, prosociality, social preferences, trust, social inequality |
| JEL: | D64 C90 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7068&r=soc |
| By: | Argentiero, Amedeo; Cerqueti, Roy; Sabatini, Fabio |
| Abstract: | Abstract Social capital has been credited with playing a role in many desirable economic outcomes. We analyze how these potentially beneficial effects translate into the macro-performance of economies by developing a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model featuring the role of social capital in the explanation of the Solow residual. We then simulate and estimate the model with Bayesian techniques using Italian data. Our framework fits actual data better than a standard DSGE model, suggesting that social capital may improve the economic performance via its impact on total factor productivity. |
| Keywords: | social capital; total factor productivity; Solow residual; DSGE models |
| JEL: | A13 A14 E22 O11 |
| Date: | 2018–05–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:87100&r=soc |
| By: | Hana Bataineh (University of Ottawa, ON, Canada); Rose Anne Devlin (University of Ottawa, ON, Canada); Vicky Barham (University of Ottawa, ON, Canada) |
| Abstract: | Evidence shows that access to a regular family doctor increases the likelihood of regular care; but about 15% of the Canadian population does not have access to a regular family doctor. We are the first to examine if the presence of individual social capital (e.g., tangible support, friends and family) increases the likelihood of having a regular family doctor. Using the Canadian National Population Health longitudinal survey (1994 to 2010) and a dynamic random effects model (with and without endogenous initial conditions) we find robust evidence of a statistically significant and positive causal relationship between social capital and the probability of having a regular family doctor. Since past access to a family doctor is a strong predictor of both current and future access, we show that social capital is much more important in helping individuals find a family doctor than for keeping one. |
| Keywords: | Social Capital; Social Networks; Regular Family Doctor; National Population Health Survey. |
| JEL: | I10 I12 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ott:wpaper:1806e&r=soc |
| By: | Mounu Prem; Andrés F. Rivera; Dario A. Romero; Juan F. Vargas |
| Abstract: | We study the unintended consequences of the recent peace process in Colombia, that ended over five decades of internal armed conflict with the FARC insurgency. Using a triple differences empirical strategy, we show that the permanent ceasefire that started in December 2014 in the context of the peace negotiations was followed by an increase in the killing of social leaders in previously FARC-dominated territories, perpetrated by other armed groups seeking control of these areas. Con- sistent with our interpretation that local social leaders are killed to thwart collective action and mobilization at the municipal level, we show that the targeting of social leaders is not explained by the behavior of the overall homicide rate and that it is exacerbated in municipalities with weaker state capacity and an inefficient local judi- ciary. Our results suggest that partial pacification processes can exacerbate violence by other existing armed groups, aimed at controlling pacified territories. |
| Keywords: | Social leaders, Peace process, Armed conflict, Territorial control |
| JEL: | D72 D74 |
| Date: | 2018–06–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:016385&r=soc |
| By: | Giovanni Immordino (Università di Napoli Federico II and CSEF); Gülen Karakoç-Palminteri (Università di Milano Bicocca); Salvatore Piccolo (Università di Bergamo and CSEF); Paolo Roberti (Università di Bergamo) |
| Abstract: | We study a simple law enforcement model in which the organizational structure of criminal organizations is endogenous and determined jointly with the amnesty granted to criminals who ip and blow the whistle (leniency program). We allow criminals to choose between a horizontal (partnership) and a vertical structure and study how this choice affects the optimal leniency chosen by a benevolent Legislator whose objective is to minimize crime. We show that when soldiers in vertical organizations have valuable information about the boss, the policy mainly targets vertical hierarchies, leaving horizontal structures proliferate in number. By contrast, when soldiers are poorly informed about their heads, the Legislator implements a policy that completely eradicates partnerships. When the two types of organization coexist, partnerships emerge only for intermediate levels of trust between criminals, while organizations take a vertical structure for low or high levels of trust among felons. |
| Keywords: | Criminal Organizations, Leniency, Organizational Structure, Partnerships, Vertical Hierarchies |
| JEL: | K14 K42 D73 D78 |
| Date: | 2018–06–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:503&r=soc |
| By: | Julie L. Hotchkiss; Anil Rupasingha |
| Abstract: | Consistent with predictions from the literature, we find that higher levels of in-migration dilute multiple dimensions of a community's level of social capital. The analysis employs a 2SLS methodology to account for potential endogeneity of migration. |
| Keywords: | social capital, migration, decennial census, social capital community benchmark survey, non-public data, simultaneous equations, endogeneity, factor analysis |
| JEL: | R23 D71 C36 C38 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:18-32&r=soc |