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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2024‒06‒24
nine papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Lenard, Matthew A. (Harvard University); Silliman, Mikko (Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of informal social interactions on academic achievement and behavior using idiosyncratic variation in peer groups stemming from changes in bus routes across elementary, middle, and high school. Our results suggest that student interactions outside the classroom - especially in adolescence - may be an important factor in the education production function for both academic and, particularly, behavioral skills. The effects of interactions on the bus are also related to neighborhood measures - suggesting that one way that interactions on the bus may matter is by amplifying interactions in the neighborhood. |
| Keywords: | social interactions, peer effects, education, behavior |
| JEL: | I21 C31 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16982&r= |
| By: | Samuel Bazzi; Martin Fiszbein; Maximiliano Garcia |
| Abstract: | The United States is among the most individualistic societies in the world. However, unlike Western European individualism, which is imbued with moral universalism, America’s “rugged individualism” is instead particularistic. We link this distinctive cultural configuration to the country’s frontier history. The frontier favored self-reliance, but also rewarded cooperation, which could only be sustained through strong, local group identities. We show that counties with longer frontier history are more particularistic, displaying stronger opposition to federal taxes relative to state taxes, stronger communal values, less charitable giving to distant counties, and fewer online friendships with people in distant counties. At the same time, connections across counties display assortative matching on frontier history, highlighting the important role of culture in bridging disparate areas of the country. Overall, our results shed new light on moral values and the divergence of American and European individualism. |
| JEL: | N31 N91 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32433&r= |
| By: | Cantoni, Davide; Kao, Andrew; Yang, David Y.; Yuchtman, Noam |
| Abstract: | Citizens have long taken to the streets to demand change, expressing political views that may otherwise be suppressed. Protests have produced change at local, national, and international scales, including spectacular moments of political and social transformation. We document five new empirical patterns describing 1.2 million protest events across 218 countries between 1980 and 2020. First, autocracies and weak democracies experienced a trend break in protests during the Arab Spring. Second, protest movements also rose in importance following the Arab Spring. Third, protest movements geographically diffuse over time, spiking to their peak, before falling off. Fourth, a country’s year-to-year economic performance is not strongly correlated with protests; individual values are predictive of protest participation. Fifth, the US, China, and Russia are the most over-represented countries by their share of academic studies. We discuss each pattern’s connections to the existing literature and anticipate paths for future work. |
| Keywords: | protests; information technology; movements; political participation |
| JEL: | D72 P00 |
| Date: | 2024–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:123527&r= |
| By: | Roskruge, Matthew (Massey University); Poot, Jacques (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we present evidence from quantitative research over the last decade on how the social capital of individuals in Aotearoa New Zealand is associated with birthplace and, for migrants, years since migration. We also consider the effects of spatial sorting and ethnic diversity on social capital formation. Aotearoa New Zealand has one of the highest rates of immigration in the OECD and, consequently, one of the highest shares of foreign-born individuals in the population. Additionally, the population is characterized by high ethnic diversity and a large indigenous population, with Māori representing 17 percent of the population. Using several data sources, we measure social capital by focusing on participation and volunteering in a range of community activities, perceptions of safety and inclusion, and voting in elections. Regression modelling shows that, as expected, migrants have little local social capital upon arrival. However, differences between their social capital and that of native-born individuals reduce considerably as the duration of residence in Aotearoa New Zealand increases. When the migrant share in a region is larger than the national average, migrants invest less in bridging social capital. Migrant clustering within a region increases their investment in bonding social capital. Bridging activities are associated with better employment outcomes. Less than one in five respondents in the utilized survey data report discrimination, and for migrants, discrimination declines with years of residence. However, the trend in discrimination has been upward over time and particularly affects non-European migrants and persons identifying with Māori and Pacific Peoples ethnicities. Residential location matters. Greater ethnic diversity is associated with the perception of a less safe neighbourhood, but individuals in ethnically diverse regions experience relatively less discrimination. Additionally, there is more involvement in elections in such regions. In contrast, greater ethnic polarisation in regions is associated with less civic engagement and more discrimination. |
| Keywords: | social capital, ethnic diversity, bonding, bridging, linking, immigrant integration, spatial sorting |
| JEL: | F22 R11 Z13 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17012&r= |
| By: | Daniele Nosenzo (Aarhus Univeristy, Denmark); Erte Xiao (Monash University, Australia); Nina Xue (Monash University, Australia) |
| Abstract: | The literature on punishment and prosocial behavior has presented conflicting findings. In some settings, punishment crowds out prosocial behavior and backfires; in others, however, it promotes prosociality. We examine whether the punisher’s motives can help reconcile these results through a novel experiment in which the agent’s outcomes are identical in two environments, but in one the pre-emptive punishment scheme is self-serving (i.e., potentially benefits the punisher), while in the other it is other-regarding (i.e., potentially benefits a third party). We find that self-serving punishment reduces the social stigma of selfish behavior, while other-regarding punishment does not. Self-serving punishment is thus less effective at encouraging compliance and is more likely to backfire. We further show that the normative message is somewhat weaker when punishment is less costly for the punisher. Our findings have implications for the design of punishment mechanisms and highlight the importance of the punisher’s motives in expressing norms. |
| Keywords: | punishment, norms, stigma, crowd out, expressive function of punishment |
| JEL: | C91 C72 D02 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2024-09&r= |
| By: | Brummel, Lars; Toshkov, Dimiter |
| Abstract: | Governments often face social protests contesting their policies and reform plans. In liberal democracies, governments are expected to listen to and consider the demands of the protesters. But in reality, there is often a trade-off between accommodating protesters and enacting timely and effective policies. We study the preferences of citizens for government actions in the context of significant social protests – from canceling and delaying the policies to pushing through with the reforms ignoring protesters to banning protests altogether. To do that, we conduct a survey experiment in the Netherlands in which we manipulate the level of government enacting reforms contested by social protests and whether the reforms are supported or opposed by a majority of the citizens. We also measure whether respondents agree with the substance of the reforms and their trust in government. The results indicate that people are more likely to support governments pushing through with reforms and ignoring social protests when the reforms enjoy majority support and respondents agree with the direction of the reform proposal. Trust in government has a similar effect, but the level of government does not matter. There is very little support for banning protests altogether, and none of the factors we consider predict this attitude. These findings suggest that – even in well-established democracies – citizens’ views on whether governments should listen to, rather than ignore, social protests are contingent on the policy content of the contested government reforms and the existence of majority support for such reforms in society; hence, on a mixture of instrumental and principled reasons, with the principle reflecting a majoritarian view of democracy. |
| Date: | 2024–05–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:neh5u&r= |
| By: | Snir, Avichai; Levy, Dudi; Wang, Dian; Chen, Haipeng (Allan); Levy, Daniel |
| Abstract: | Many experimental studies report that economics students tend to act more selfishly than students of other disciplines, a finding that received widespread public and professional attention. Two main explanations that the existing literature offers for the differences found in the behavior between economists and non-economists are: (i) the selection effect, and (ii) the indoctrination effect. We offer an alternative, novel explanation: we argue that these differences can be explained by differences in the interpretation of the context. We test this hypothesis by conducting two social dilemma experiments in the US and Israel with participants from both economics and non-economics majors. In the experiments, participants face a tradeoff between profit maximization (market norm) and workers’ welfare (social norm). We use priming to manipulate the cues that the participants receive before they make their decision. We find that when participants receive cues signaling that the decision has an economic context, both economics and non-economics students tend to maximize profits. When the participants receive cues emphasizing social norms, on the other hand, both economics and non-economics students are less likely to maximize profits. We conclude that some of the differences found between the decisions of economics and non-economics students can be explained by contextual cues. |
| Keywords: | Selection; Indoctrination; Self-Interest; Market Norms; Social Norms; Economic Man; Rational Choice; Fairness; Experimental Economics; Laboratory Experiments; Priming; Economists vs. Non-Economists; Behavioral Economics |
| JEL: | A11 A12 A13 A20 B40 C90 C91 D01 D63 D91 P10 |
| Date: | 2024–04–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:120871&r= |
| By: | Brummund, Peter (University of Alabama); Makowsky, Michael D. (Clemson University) |
| Abstract: | Participation in social groups ties members to local communities. Employers can capture these benefits as rents when geographically-specific club goods raise the cost of labor mobility. We measure ties to local clubs using the shares of households identifying with a minority religion, enrollment of children in Islamic schools, and membership in secular savings clubs. We identify larger wage markdowns where households have stronger ties to local club goods. Complementarity between labor market concentration and club goods offers an explanation of rising wage markdowns absent increasing concentration, while adding to the difficulty in separating monopsony rents from compensating wage differentials. |
| Keywords: | monopsony, imperfect competition, club goods, religion |
| JEL: | J42 J31 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16999&r= |
| By: | Molho, Catherine; Peña, Jorge; Singh, Manvir; Derex, Maxime |
| Abstract: | Norms and institutions enable large-scale human cooperation by creating shared expectations and changing individuals’ incentives via monitoring or sanctioning. Like material technologies, these social technologies satisfy instrumental ends and solve difficult problems. However, the similarities and differences between the evolution of material technologies and the evolution of social technologies remain unresolved. Here, we review evidence suggesting that, compared to the evolution of material technologies, institutional and normative evolution exhibits constraints in the production of variation and the selection of useful variants. These constraints stem from the frequency-dependent nature of social technologies and limit the pace and scope of normative and institutional evolution. We conclude by reviewing research on the social transmission of institutions and norms and highlighting an experimental paradigm to study their cultural evolution. |
| Keywords: | Institutions; norms; technology; social learning; cultural evolution |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:iastwp:129409&r= |