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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2022‒04‒04
six papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Hager, Anselm (Humbodt-Universität); Valasek, Justin (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | Does exposure to refugees affect natives' prosocial behavior? If so, do changes in prosocial behavior also extend to existing migrants? We administer a survey of a representative sample of Lebanese respondents and measure their prosocial behavior toward Syrian refugees, Palestinian migrants, and other Lebanese. Combining our survey data and data on refugee settlements, we find that individual proximity to refugees is positively correlated with trust towards refugees, and that there is a positive spillover toward Palestinian migrants. Taken together, the evidence highlights how inter-group contact can help mitigate the negative effects of mass migration. |
| Keywords: | Migrants; prosocial behavior |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2022–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2022_004&r= |
| By: | Hager, Anselm (Humbodt-Universität); Valasek, Justin (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study how forced migration impacts the in-group and out-group social capital of Syrian refugees and the host population in Northern Lebanon by administering a novel survey experiment in which we manipulate the salience of the migration experience (for refugees) and the refugee crisis (for the host population). Additionally, we study the social spillovers to Palestinians, an established refugee population in Lebanon. We find that the impact of forced migration is largely restricted to the Syrian refugee-Lebanese host population channel, and that it increases the relative disparity between in-group and out-group social capital. This may cause refugees to favor in-group interactions and therefore forgo more economically advantageous interactions with out-group members. |
| Keywords: | Refugees; Migration; Social Capital; Experiment; Ethnicity |
| JEL: | C90 D91 J15 |
| Date: | 2022–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2022_005&r= |
| By: | Abigail Barr; Mattea Stein |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of social status in relationships between rich and poor in non-lineage-based, agrarian communities by analysing who goes to whose funerals in six resettled Zimbabwean villages. Funerals allow social status to be observed because non-attendance is a sign of disrespect. We find that the richer a household hosting a funeral, the less likely heads of neighbouring households are to attend. This is consistent with the existence of an egalitarian norm that is being violated, to some degree, by the richer households. This norm is stronger among kin but also holds for non-kin. An analysis of assistance provision offers no evidence that some richer households comply with the norm and eschew punishment. While the egalitarian norm appears weak (punishment for norm violation is exerted but compliance does not follow), patron-client relationships appear not to have emerged in its place. |
| Keywords: | Social status; Egalitarian norms; Patronage; Sub-Saharan Africa; Funeral attendance |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcre:22/01&r= |
| By: | Elizabeth Casabianca (Joint Research Centre (JRC),Ivrea); Matija Kovacic (Department of Economics, University Of Venice CÃ Foscari; Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ivrea) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the direct causal effect of loneliness on a variety of health outcomes using a sample of second-generation immigrants drawn from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. In an effort to account for the endogeneity of self-declared loneliness, we explore the link between loneliness and a specific cultural trait strongly associated with quality of relations and use maternal cultural background as an instrument for loneliness. We thus also assess the importance of cultural heritage in shaping individuals' perceptions of loneliness. Additionally, we investigate one pathway by which some specific ancestral factors may influence the formation of cultural traits in the modern era. Our results suggest that loneliness has a significant impact on health, both mental and physical. Notably, our identification strategy allows us to uncover a more severe effect of loneliness on health than that found in an OLS setting. These findings are robust to a battery of sensitivity checks. |
| Keywords: | Loneliness, relationship quality, culture, mental health, physical health |
| JEL: | I12 I14 J14 D91 Z13 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2022:01&r= |
| By: | Mikula, Štepán (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic); Reggiani, Tommaso (Cardiff Business School) |
| Abstract: | Through a correspondence study, this paper investigates whether employers discriminate job applicants based on their living conditions. Exploiting the natural setting provided by a Rapid Re-housing Program, we sent 1,347 job applications for low-qualified front-desk jobs in Brno, Czech Republic. The resumes exogenously differed in only one main aspect represented by the address of the applicants, signaling both the quality of the neighborhood and the quality of the housing conditions in which they were living. We found that while the higher quality of the district has a strong effect in increasing the hiring chances (+20%) the actual improvement of the living conditions standards, per se, does not generate any significant positive effect. |
| Keywords: | correspondence study, labor discrimination, housing conditions, Rapid Re-housing. |
| JEL: | C93 J08 J71 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2022/8&r= |
| By: | Nicolas Lagios; Pierre-Guillaume Méon; Ilan Tojerow |
| Abstract: | We study how demonstrating against a far-right candidate changes the behavior of voters and ultimately impacts election results. To do so, we focus on the 2002 French runoff presidential elections which pitted far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen against the incumbent, Jacques Chirac. Between the two rounds of the election, demonstrators protested Le Pen’s quest for power at roughly 300 demonstrations. Using rainfall as an exogenous source of variation in demonstration attendance across municipalities, we find that larger protests reduced the number of votes for Le Pen and the number of abstentions and blank or invalid ballots, and increased the number of votes for Chirac. We show that this positive effect on voting for Chirac results from left-wing voters who did not cast a blank or invalid ballot and right-wing voters who switched from Le Pen to Chirac. Next, we focus on the mechanisms behind these results to find that the 2002 demonstrations both reduced support for the policies advocated by Le Pen and signaled that voting for him was socially undesirable. Finally, we provide evidence that demonstrations affected voting mainly through local media coverage and spread out beyond the municipalities that hosted the demonstrations. |
| Keywords: | Demonstration; Election; Protest; Far-right; Populism |
| JEL: | D72 |
| Date: | 2022–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/341162&r= |