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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2024‒03‒25
five papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Andre, Peter; Boneva, Teodora; Chopra, Felix; Falk, Armin |
| Abstract: | We document the individual willingness to act against climate change and study the role of social norms in a large sample of US adults. Individual beliefs about social norms positively predict pro-climate donations, comparable in strength to universal moral values and economic preferences such as patience and reciprocity. However, we document systematic misperceptions of social norms. Respondents vastly underestimate the prevalence of climate-friendly behaviors and norms. Correcting these misperceptions in an experiment causally raises individual willingness to act against climate change as well as individual support for climate policies. The effects are strongest for individuals who are skeptical about the existence and threat of global warming. |
| Keywords: | Climate change, climate behavior, climate policies, social norms, misperception, beliefs, economic preferences, moral values, survey experiments |
| JEL: | D64 D83 D91 Q51 Q54 Z13 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:safewp:284397&r=soc |
| By: | Brad Cannon; David Hirshleifer; Joshua Thornton |
| Abstract: | Using friendship data from Facebook, we study the effects of three aspects of social capital on household financial behavior. We find that the most important measure of social capital in explaining stock market and saving participation is Economic Connectedness, defined as the fraction of one’s social network with high socioeconomic status. One standard-deviation greater Economic Connectedness is associated with 2.9% greater stock market participation and 5.0% greater saving participation. Compared to Cohesiveness or Civic Engagement, Economic Connectedness explains more than 6 times the variation in stock market participation and more than 4 times the variation in saving participation. Using data on nonlocal friendships, we provide evidence supporting a causal link between household financial behavior and the income of one's friends. Furthermore, we provide evidence that greater opportunities for social interaction with wealthy individuals is associated with increased stock market and saving participation. |
| JEL: | D14 D15 D63 G4 G40 G41 G5 G50 G51 I3 I30 I31 I38 O16 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32186&r=soc |
| By: | Grosjean, Pauline (UNSW Sydney); Jha, Saumitra (Stanford U); Vlassopoulos, Michael (U of Southampton and IZA, Bonn); Zenou, Yves (Monash U and IZA, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | We study the dynamics between local segregation, partisanship, and political polarization. We exploit large-scale, exogenous and high-stakes peer assignment due to universal conscription of soldiers assigned from each of 34, 947 municipalities to French infantry regiments during WWI. We find that municipalities with soldiers serving with the same line regiment converge in their post-war voting behaviors. Soldiers from rural municipalities exposed to more leftist regimental peers become more leftist for the first time after the war, while adjacent municipalities assigned to the right are inoculated against the left. We provide evidence that these differences reflect persuasive information exchanged among peers when the stakes for cooperation and trust are high rather than group conformity. These differences further lead to the emergence of sharp and enduring post-war discontinuities across 435 regimental boundaries that are reflected, not only in voting, but also in violent civil conflicts between Collaborators and Resistants during WWII. |
| JEL: | D74 L14 N44 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:stabus:4142&r=soc |
| By: | James Alm (Tulane University) |
| Abstract: | Ensuring compliance with the tax laws is an enduring challenge for all governments, and government strategies are constantly evolving as circumstances change. Recently, countries around the world have experienced some major shocks, shocks that are already affecting tax compliance and the policies that governments utilize to maintain compliance. In this paper I examine the effects of two especially important shocks -- technological shocks and SARS-CoV-2 pandemic shocks -- on tax compliance in the years ahead. I argue first that many of these changes in technology will improve the ability of governments to improve tax compliance, mainly by increasing the flow of information to governments, while at the same time opening up new avenues by which some individuals and some firms can evade (and avoid) taxes. I then argue that the pandemic and the associated policies enacted by governments will affect compliance in uncertain ways, in large part because of the conflicting effects of the pandemic and government policies on trust in government. At this point it is unclear which of these trends will dominate, so that the effects of technology and the pandemic on the overall level of tax compliance in a post-pandemic world are uncertain. Even so, I believe that the distributional effects of these shocks are more predictable. Indeed, I argue that these two shocks -- especially the technological shocks -- seem virtually certain to increase economic inequality, regardless of their actual impacts on the level of tax compliance. The challenge facing governments is devising policies to counter these trends. |
| Keywords: | Tax compliance, technology, digitalization, trust, inequality, technology |
| JEL: | H26 H22 D63 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:2404&r=soc |
| By: | Dan Anderberg; Gordon B. Dahl; Cristina Felfe; Helmut Rainer; Thomas Siedler |
| Abstract: | What makes diversity unifying in some settings but divisive in others? We examine how the mixing of ethnic groups in German schools affects intergroup cooperation and trust. We leverage the quasi-random assignment of students to classrooms within schools to obtain variation in the type of diversity that prevails in a peer group. We combine this with a large-scale, incentivized lab-in-field-experiment based on the investment game, allowing us to assess the in-group bias of native German students in their interactions with fellow natives (in-group) versus immigrants (out-group). We find in-group bias peaks in culturally polarized classrooms, where the native and immigrant groups are both large, but have different religious or language backgrounds. In contrast, in classrooms characterized by non-cultural polarization, fractionalization, or a native supermajority, there are significantly lower levels of own-group favoritism. In terms of mechanisms, we find empirical evidence that culturally polarized classrooms foster negative stereotypes about immigrants' trustworthiness and amplify taste-based discrimination, both of which are costly and lead to lower payouts. In contrast, accurate statistical discrimination is ruled out by design in our experiment. These findings suggest that extra efforts are needed to counteract low levels of inclusivity and trust in culturally polarized environments. |
| JEL: | J15 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32177&r=soc |