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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2018‒11‒12
fifteen papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Geraci, Andrea (University of Oxford); Nardotto, Mattia (KU Leuven); Reggiani, Tommaso G. (Masaryk University); Sabatini, Fabio (Sapienza University of Rome) |
| Abstract: | We study how the diffusion of broadband Internet affects social capital using two data sets from the UK. Our empirical strategy exploits the fact that broadband access has long depended on customers' position in the voice telecommunication infrastructure that was designed in the 1930s. The actual speed of an Internet connection, in fact, rapidly decays with the distance of the dwelling from the specific node of the network serving its area. Merging unique information about the topology of the voice network with geocoded longitudinal data about individual social capital, we show that access to broadband Internet caused a significant decline in forms of offline interaction and civic engagement. Overall, our results suggest that broadband penetration substantially crowded out several aspects of social capital. |
| Keywords: | ICT, broadband infrastructure, networks, Internet, social capital, civic capital |
| JEL: | C91 D9 D91 Z1 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11855&r=soc |
| By: | Bonick, Matthew; Farfan-Vallespin, Antonio |
| Abstract: | We show differences in levels of racism within a sample of former European colonies can be traced to historical institutions. Our identification strategy relies on the reversal of fortune, a historical shock capturing the exogenous establishment of different institutions during the onset of European colonization. Using both OLS and multilevel analysis, we find, extractive historical institutions to be a strong predictor of higher levels of racism independent of present and other explanatory factors at the individual and country levels. We argue and provide evidence this relationship is causal and operates through internal norms, beliefs and values. |
| JEL: | J15 N30 N40 Z10 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181569&r=soc |
| By: | Liberini, Federica (ETH Zurich, Department of Economics); Redoano, Michela (University of Warwick); Russo, Antonio (ETH Zurich, Department of Economics); Cuevas, Angel (University Carlos III, Department of Telematic Engeneering); Cuevas, Ruben (University Carlos III, Department of Telematic Engeneering) |
| Abstract: | Social media enable politicians to personalize their campaigns and target voters who may be decisive for the outcome of elections. We assess the effects of such political “micro-targeting” by exploiting variation in daily advertising prices on Facebook, collected during the course of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. We analyze the variation of prices across political ideologies and propose a measure for the intensity of online political campaigns. Combining this measure with information from the ANES electoral survey, we address two fundamental questions: (i) To what extent did political campaigns use social media to micro-target voters? (ii) How large was the effect, if any, on voters who were heavily exposed to campaigning on social media? We find that online political campaigns targeted on users’ gender, geographic location, and political ideology had a significant effect in persuading undecided voters to support Mr Trump, and in persuading Republican supporters to turn out on polling day. Moreover the effect of micro-targeting on Facebook was strongest among users without university or college-level education.Keywords: JEL Classification: |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:389&r=soc |
| By: | M. Bürker; I. Mammi; G. A. Minerva |
| Abstract: | This paper studies whether civic capital (those persistent shared beliefs and values that help a group overcome the free rider problem in the pursuit of socially valuable activities) acts an effective restraint against opportunistic behavior in transactions by looking at the firm-level degree of service outsourcing in Italy. Our results show that firms tend to outsource more services in areas where civic capital is higher. We claim that the rise in the propensity to engage in transactions with outside service suppliers stems from the decrease in opportunism between the parties involved. We consider a dynamic specification which allows to disentangle state dependence of service out- sourcing from firm-level heterogeneity, and we use historical instruments to address the potential endogeneity of civic capital. |
| JEL: | A13 L20 L24 R12 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1125&r=soc |
| By: | Hoang (PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine, Paris, France, UMR 225 DIAL, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Paris, France); Laure Pasquier-Doumer (IRD, UMR DIAL, PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine); Camille Saint-Macary (IRD, UMR DIAL, PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | Ethnic inequality remains a persistent challenge for Viet Nam. This paper aims at better understanding this ethnic gap through exploring the formation of risk sharing networks in rural areas. It first investigates the differences in risk sharing networks between the ethnic minorities and the Kinh majority, in terms of size and similarity attributes of the networks. Second, it relies on the concept of ethnic homophily in link formation to explain the mechanisms leading to those differences. In particular, it disentangles the effect of demographic and local distribution of ethnic groups on risk-sharing network formation from cultural and social distance between ethnic groups, while controlling for the disparities in the geographical environment. Results show that ethnic minorities have smaller and less diversified networks than the majority. This is partly explained by differences in wealth and in the geographical environment. But ethnicity also plays a direct role in risk-sharing network formation through the combination of preferences to form a link with people from the same ethnic group (inbreeding homophily) and the relative size of ethnic groups conditioning the opportunities to form a link (baseline homophily). Inbreeding homophily is found to be stronger among the Kinh majority, leading to the exclusion of ethnic minorities from Kinh networks, which are supposed to be more efficient to cope with covariant risk because they are more diversified in the occupation and location of their members. This evidence suggests that inequalities among ethnic groups in Viet Nam are partly rooted in the cultural and social distances between them. |
| Keywords: | Risk-sharing network, homophily, ethnic gap, Viet Nam, Vietnam. |
| JEL: | O12 I31 D85 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201815&r=soc |
| By: | Annette Alstadsæter; Wojciech Kopczuk; Kjetil Telle |
| Abstract: | In 2005, over 8% of Norwegian shareholders transferred their shares to new (legal) tax shelters intended to defer taxation of capital gains and dividends that would otherwise be taxable in the aftermath of 2006 reform. Using detailed administrative data we identify family networks and describe how take up of tax avoidance progresses within a network. A feature of the reform was that the ability to set up a tax shelter changed discontinuously with individual shareholding of a firm and we use this fact to estimate the causal effect of availability of tax avoidance for a taxpayer on tax avoidance by others in the network. We find that take up in a social network increases the likelihood that others will take up. This suggests that taxpayers affect each other's decisions about tax avoidance, highlighting the importance of accounting for social interactions in understanding enforcement and tax avoidance behavior, and providing a concrete example of “optimization frictions” in the context of behavioral responses to taxation. |
| JEL: | D22 D23 H25 H26 H32 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25191&r=soc |
| By: | Akcigit, Ufuk; Baslandze, Salomé; Lotti, Francesca |
| Abstract: | Do political connections affect firm dynamics, innovation, and creative destruction? We study Italian firms and their workers to answer this question. Our analysis uses a brand-new dataset, spanning the period from 1993 to 2014, where we merge: (i) firm-level balance sheet data; (ii) social security data on the universe of workers; (iii) patent data from the European Patent Office; (iv) the national registry of local politicians; and (v) detailed data on local elections in Italy. We find that firm-level political connections are widespread, especially among large firms, and that industries with a larger share of politically connected firms feature worse firm dynamics. We identify a leadership paradox: When compared to their competitors, market leaders are much more likely to be politically connected, but much less likely to innovate. In addition, political connections relate to a higher rate of survival, as well as growth in employment and revenue, but not in productivity - a result that we also confirm using a regression discontinuity design. We build a firm dynamics model, where we allow firms to invest in innovation and/or political connection to advance their productivity and to overcome certain market frictions. Our model highlights a new interaction between static gains and dynamic losses from rent-seeking in aggregate productivity. |
| Keywords: | creative destruction; Firm Dynamics; Innovation; Political Connections; productivity |
| JEL: | D7 O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13216&r=soc |
| By: | Ruhose, Jens (Leibniz University of Hannover); Thomsen, Stephan L. (Leibniz University of Hannover); Weilage, Insa (Leibniz University of Hannover) |
| Abstract: | We propose a regression-adjusted matched difference-in-differences framework to estimate non-pecuniary returns to adult education. This approach combines kernel matching with entropy balancing to account for selection bias and sorting on gains. Using data from the German SOEP, we evaluate the effect of work-related training, which represents the largest portion of adult education in OECD countries, on individual social capital. Training increases participation in civic, political, and cultural activities while not crowding out social participation. Results are robust against a variety of potentially confounding explanations. These findings imply positive externalities from work-related training over and above the well-documented labor market effects. |
| Keywords: | non-pecuniary returns, social capital, work-related training, matched difference-in-differences approach, entropy balancing |
| JEL: | J24 I21 M53 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11854&r=soc |
| By: | Martijn Hendriks (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Martijn (M.J.) Burger (Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | Immigrants in developed countries typically fail to assimilate in terms of subjective well-being, meaning that their happiness and life satisfaction do not substantially increase with their length of stay or across generations, and therefore their subjective well-being remains lower than that of natives. This contrasts with migrants’ own expectations and the predictions of straight-line assimilation theory, along with the general improvement of immigrants’ objective living conditions with their length of stay. Using European Social Survey data, we show that the subjective well-being assimilation of first-generation immigrants in developed European countries is impaired by the gradual development of less positive perceptions of the host country’s economic, political, and social conditions. These faltering societal perceptions particularly affect immigrants whose societal conditions strongly improved by migration and immigrants who arrived after childhood. Faltering societal perceptions continue to impair subjective well-being assimilation across generations. However, compared with natives, first-generation immigrants derive a subjective well-being advantage from their more positive societal perceptions. We attribute these findings to immigrants’ growing aspirations and expectations that follow from their habituation to better conditions in their host country and fewer (more) comparisons to inferior (better) conditions of the people in their home (host) country. Our findings suggest that delaying or decelerating the process of immigrants’ faltering societal perceptions is a promising pathway to improved subjective well-being assimilation and reduced frustration about their perceived lack of progress. |
| Keywords: | subjective well-being; migration; assimilation; aspirations; expectations |
| JEL: | I31 F22 |
| Date: | 2018–10–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20180080&r=soc |
| By: | Chaikumbung, Mayula (Kasetsart University); Doucouliagos, Chris (Deakin University); Scarborough, Helen (Deakin University) |
| Abstract: | Do institutions and culture affect environmental values? In this article we analyze 1,041 environmental valuations of 223 wetlands in 38 developing countries, to examine the effect of institutions and culture on environmental values. We assess three dimensions of institutional quality: economic freedom, democracy, and good governance. We also consider the impact of cultural differences. Possibly surprisingly, wetland values are lower in more market based economies and they are lower in cultures that are more indulgent and authoritarian. In contrast, improved government effectiveness increases wetland valuations. Understanding these important and varying effects of institutions and culture on wetland valuations is important for policy development and environmental preservation. |
| Keywords: | institutions, culture, wetlands, valuations, environmental preferences, meta-regression |
| JEL: | Q3 H4 O13 P48 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11848&r=soc |
| By: | Iñiguez, David; Ortega, Raquel; Rivero, Alejandro; Velilla, Jorge |
| Abstract: | The objective of the work is to know the behavior of new Spanish companies in social networks and the use they make of them, trying to establish relationships between the type of company and its behavior in the digital world. We obtain information on the almost 30,000 companies constituted between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017 from the Official Bulletin of the Mercantile Registry (BORME), using the classification of economic activities CNAE when defining the type of company. The newly created companies show interest in visualizing themselves in social networks, 36% in Facebook, 23% in LinkedIn and 15% in Twitter, detecting also activity in Instagram and YouTube for some particular niches, being the commercial activity (Group C of CNAE) the predominant in the presence of new Spanish companies in social networks. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, New Companies, Social Networks, Spain, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter |
| JEL: | L26 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:89652&r=soc |
| By: | Jacques Melitz (CREST; ENSAE; CEPII); Farid Toubal (CREST; ENS de Paris-Saclay; CEPII) |
| Abstract: | Somatic distance; or differences in physical appearance; proves to be extremely important in the gravity model of bilateral trade in conformity with results in other areas of economics and outside in the social sciences. This is also true independently of survey evidence about bilateral trust. These findings are obtained in a sample of the 15 members of the European Economic Association in 1996. Robustness tests also show that somatic distance; as well as co-ancestry; has a more reliable influence on bilateral trade than the other cultural variables. The article finally discusses the interpretation and breadth of application of these results. |
| Keywords: | Somatic distance, Cultural interactions, Co-ancestry, Trust, Language, Bilateral Trade. |
| JEL: | F10 F40 Z10 |
| Date: | 2018–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpaper:2018-11&r=soc |
| By: | Cristina Bicchieri; Eugen Dimant (Philosophy, Politics and Economics, University of Pennsylvania); Erte Xiao; |
| Abstract: | A stream of research examining the effect of punishment on conformity indicates that punishment can backfire and lead to suboptimal social outcomes. We examine whether this effect originates from a lack of perceived legitimacy of rule enforcement, enabling agents to justify selfish behavior to themselves. We address the question of punishment legitimacy by shedding light upon the importance of social norms and their interplay with punishment. Often people are presented with incomplete norm information: either about what most others do (empirical) or what most others deem appropriate (normative). We show that neither punishment nor empirical/normative information in isolation result in prosocial behavior. In turn, we find that prosociality is significantly increased when normative information and punishment are combined, but only when compliance is relatively cheap. When compliance is more expensive, we find that the combination of punishment and empirical information about others’ conformity can have detrimental effects on prosocial behavior. We attribute this outcome to the differential ability to distort one’s own beliefs about applicable norms. Our results have important implications for researchers and practitioners alike. |
| Keywords: | Conformity, Experiments, Punishment, Social Norms, Trust Game |
| JEL: | C91 D03 D73 H26 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ppc:wpaper:0016&r=soc |
| By: | Samuel Bazzi; Gabriel Koehler-Derrick; Benjamin Marx |
| Abstract: | Why do religious politics thrive in some societies but not others? This paper explores the institutional foundations of this process in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim democracy. We show that a major Islamic institution, the waqf, fostered the entrenchment of political Islam at a critical historical juncture. In the early 1960s, rural elites transferred large amounts of land into waqf—a type of inalienable charitable trust—to avoid expropriation by the government as part of a major land reform effort. Although the land reform was later undone, the waqf properties remained. We show that greater intensity of the planned reform led to more prevalent waqf land and Islamic institutions endowed as such, including religious schools, which are strongholds of the Islamist movement. We identify lasting effects of the reform on electoral support for Islamist parties, preferences for religious candidates, and the adoption of Islamic legal regulations (sharia). Overall, the land reform contributed to the resilience and eventual rise of political Islam by helping to spread religious institutions, thereby solidifying the alliance between local elites and Islamist groups. These findings shed new light on how religious institutions may shape politics in modern democracies. |
| JEL: | D72 D74 P16 P26 Z12 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25151&r=soc |
| By: | Koji Murayama; Jun Nagayasu |
| Abstract: | This study empirically analyzes the determinants of regional labor migration in Japan. Using spatial models of origin-destination flows and considering the network effects of labor, we obtain results more consistent with standard migration theory than previous studies. First, unlike prior research, we find that migration decisions are made by economic motivations consistent with economic theories. In particular, the unemployment rate in the destination region and income in the origin are found to be driving forces of labor migration. Second, we report that network effects, which help reduce migration costs, have encouraged the relocation of labor. Third, by using several de nitions of spatial weights, we show that spatial dependence in regional migration is more complex than what previous studies assumed. |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:toh:dssraa:88&r=soc |