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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2024‒03‒11
seven papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Laatsit, Mart (CIRCLE, Lund University); Boschma, Ron (Utrecht University) |
| Abstract: | Policy networks are an important source of information for policy making. Yet, we have only a limited understanding of how policy networks are structured among innovation policy makers and which factors shape their structure. This paper studies how proximities can explain what drives the connections in policy networks. More specifically, we look at innovation policy networks between EU member states. We use social network analysis based on our own data to map the networks of the 28 EU innovation policy directors, consisting of 756 potential connections, and study the proximities shaping these networks. Geographical and cultural proximity turn out to be strong predictors for symmetric and asymmetric ties, but we do not find a relationship between policy proximity (in terms of similarities in business environment regulations and innovation policy) and policy network formation between countries. |
| Keywords: | Innovation policy; policy networks; proximities; policy proximity; social network analysis |
| JEL: | O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2024–02–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2024_003&r=soc |
| By: | Cristina Cattaneo; Daniela Grieco; Nicola Lacetera; Mario Macis |
| Abstract: | We study out-group biases in attitudes toward refugees, and the effect of European Union (EU) immigration policies on these views, using an online survey experiment including 4, 087 Italian participants. We assess attitudes using donations to a randomly assigned group: Italian victims of violence or refugees fleeing wars in Ukraine or African countries. We also employ a novel measure, the share donated in cash. While donations indicated less support for African and Ukrainian refugees compared to Italian victims, the cash measure revealed a stronger prejudice against distant out-groups, with participants giving African refugees a smaller proportion of cash donations. This result was mainly driven by individuals with right-leaning political views. Providing information about immigration policy reforms that give the EU a more substantial role in receiving and allocating refugees had no impact. Textual analysis supports these findings. |
| JEL: | C99 D02 D64 J15 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32139&r=soc |
| By: | Yan, Xiaoqin; Bao, Honglin; Leppard, Tom; Davis, Andrew |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the cultural ties in American sociology defined by the shared usage of cultural symbols across schools. Cultural symbols are operationalized as research focuses from the dissertations of a school’s graduates. We construct a unique pairwise dataset including 6, 441 school pairs across 114 schools, detailing their dyadic relationships (e.g., geographical co-residence) and cultural proximity inferred from dissertations. We build a socio-cultural network where a school sends a tie to another when their proximity is sufficiently high. We design information theory-driven computational linguistic methods to identify gatekeeping symbols co-used by reciprocally connected schools within the same cultural niche, differentiating them from other schools in the network. Our findings reveal two major school clusters and their research trajectories, with one representing dominant trends in relatively esoteric areas like sociology of culture, economic life, organizations, and politics and the other a more explicit focus on social problems. Employing dyadic-cluster-robust inference with school-fixed effects, we discern key determinants that shape cultural convergence and distinction, including school prestige, geographical co-residence, and institutional classification. In sum, our study proposes a pipeline for measuring the strengths and symbols of cultural ties across schools and understanding the factors that influence the development of duality between schools and schools of thought. |
| Date: | 2024–02–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:qvyj8&r=soc |
| By: | Christophe J. Godlewski (LARGE - Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg); Hong Nhung Le (LARGE - Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of family ties on the performance of family firms in East Asia. To measure family ties, we used both objective and subjective indicators from the World Value Survey. Our findings indicate that family firms that are nurtured in a society with strong family ties tend to have better performance compared to family firms that operate in a culture with weak family ties. Furthermore, family firms that have strong familial relationships are more likely to gain a competitive advantage over nonfamily firms. Conversely, family firms with weak ties tend to underperform nonfamily firms. Our results are robust across various measures of firm performance, classifications of family firm, considerations of heteroskedasticity and endogeneity, and different econometric methods. |
| Date: | 2024–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04435944&r=soc |
| By: | Sarracino, Francesco; Slater, Giulia |
| Abstract: | Countries where interpersonal trust is higher have, on average, higher gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Does this mean that economic growth is associated to growing trust over time? We review the literature addressing this question, and provide updated empirical evidence on the effects of economic growth on trust over time, a well-established measure of social capital, widely considered in economic studies. We use country panel data from the Penn World Tables and information on people trusting others from the Survey Data Recycling (SDR) v.2.0 database, the largest source of data on trust currently available. Results confirm the positive cross-sectional relation found in previous studies. However, over time trust decreases when GDP grows. A number of robustness checks and a test of causality support this conclusion. The negative relationship between economic growth and trust over time affects prevalently unequal, rich countries. This is possible because growing income inequality increases the chances for social comparisons, which substitute trust in individuals’ utility functions. Additionally, income inequality hampers cooperation and cohesiveness in favour of competition, and increases the probability of social unrest. This suggests that the quality of growth matters: interpersonal trust decreases when economic growth is accompanied by income inequalities. |
| Keywords: | trust, economic growth, panel data, paradox, inequality |
| JEL: | I38 O15 O40 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:120053&r=soc |
| By: | Sakketa, Tekalign Gutu |
| Abstract: | Africa is currently undergoing the most rapid urbanisation process globally, and this trend is forecast to persist in the coming decades. Many believe that this ongoing rapid urbanisation process is changing the social fabric and reshaping social cohesion. This study explores the theoretical channels through which urbanisation affects social cohesion and provides empirical evidence of their interrelationship. Specifically, the study asks: given the vast social, economic, cultural, political and environmental transformation associated with urbanisation, is there a link between urbanisation and social cohesion? Combining a novel national panel data set on social cohesion from Afrobarometer with urbanisation and other socioeconomic data from world development indicators, the study shows that urbanisation is negatively correlated with the three attributes of social cohesion, namely trust, inclusive identity, and cooperation for the common good. These associations persist even after controlling for country socioeconomic conditions and year fixed effects. Moreover, the magnitude of this association varies across attributes, with trust and inclusive identity showing a higher correlation than cooperation for the common good. Urbanisation-induced change in economic and environmental structure, such as employment, infrastructure, and pollution, are the main channels affecting social cohesion. Overall, the findings underscore the need for inclusive urban development and policies focused on ameliorating social fragmentation resulting from rapid urbanisation unfolding across Africa. |
| Keywords: | Urbanisation, social cohesion, trust, inclusive identity, cooperation for the common good, Africa |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:diedps:282980&r=soc |
| By: | Benedikt V. Meylahn; Arnoud V. den Boer; Michel Mandjes |
| Abstract: | We study the interpersonal trust of a population of agents, asking whether chance may decide if a population ends up in a high trust or low trust state. We model this by a discrete time, random matching stochastic coordination game. Agents are endowed with an exponential smoothing learning rule about the behaviour of their neighbours. We find that, with probability one in the long run the whole population either always cooperates or always defects. By simulation we study the impact of the distributions of the payoffs in the game and of the exponential smoothing learning (memory of the agents). We find, that as the agent memory increases or as the size of the population increases, the actual dynamics start to resemble the expectation of the process. We conclude that it is indeed possible that different populations may converge upon high or low trust between its citizens simply by chance, though the game parameters (context of the society) may be quite telling. |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2402.03894&r=soc |