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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2024‒07‒22
eight papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Rustagi, Devesh (University of Warwick and CAGE) |
| Abstract: | Does markets exposure foster or erode civic values and rules necessary to constrain opportunistic behavior? Using a natural experiment on market location from Ethiopia, I compare individuals who are from the same clan and attend the same market but vary in their exposure to that market. I find a positive effect of market exposure on civic values and rule formation. This result arises because individuals trade primarily in livestock, which is prone to cooperation problem from asymmetric information and weak state capacity. I use vignette studies to show that societies develop different types of exchange structures to mitigate this problem, which then shapes civic values and rules. In societies far from markets, there is no need for civic values and rules, as individuals rarely attend markets and sell livestock eponymously within their social network. In societies near markets, ephemeral and impersonal nature of market exchange creates a demand for civic values and community sanctioning as lubricants to conclude exchange, otherwise individuals end up losing gains from trade. Exposure to markets without asymmetric information has no effect on civic values and rules, suggesting that prosperity and contact hypothesis are not the channels. |
| Keywords: | Markets, civic values, rules, cooperation, market failure, asymmetric information, Ethiopia JEL Classification: C93, D8, N97, Z13 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:713&r= |
| By: | William L. Allen; Matthew D. Bird; Luisa Feline Freier; Isabel Ruiz; Carlos Vargas-Silva |
| Abstract: | Why do citizens hold different migration policy preferences? US and European evidence suggests political trust matters by raising support for more open policies, attenuating concerns about costs and strengthening beliefs in governments’ implementation abilities. However, this may not hold in countries with limited state capacity. Instead, we argue interpersonal trust placed in policy beneficiaries matters more as citizens circumvent weaker institutions. We test this using conjoint experiments in Colombia and Peru—low-capacity countries experiencing large inflows of forcibly-displaced Venezuelans—that vary aspects of migration policies. Political trust selectively moderates preferences on migrants’ employment rights and numerical limits, contributing novel evidence of boundary conditions for this form of trust. By contrast, greater interpersonal trust is linked to more open preferences across all tested domains. Our results cast doubt on the importance of political trust for migration preferences in contexts of limited state capacity, instead highlighting its partial substitution by interpersonal trust. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notnic:2024-09&r= |
| By: | Martínez Villarreal, Déborah; Rojas Méndez, Ana María; Scartascini, Carlos; Simpser, Alberto |
| Abstract: | Can societies be nudged to adopt beneficial behaviors? Publicizing how people behave on average descriptive-norms nudging has emerged as a key tool for increasing the adoption of desirable behaviors. While nudging, by describing social norms, has proven effective in one-shot interventions in small samples (marginal-effect designs), nudging on an ongoing basis at the population level may not necessarily lead to higher compliance and can give rise to major challenges. We use a simple model to show that social adjustment dynamics can drive a populations behavior in unanticipated directions. We propose a general approach to estimating equilibrium behavior and apply it to a study of mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our empirical findings align with the analytical approach and indicate that publicizing mask-wearing rates on an ongoing basis could have backfired, as initially high rates would have settled into substantially lower equilibrium rates of the behavior. In other words, if scaled up, positive marginal-effect designs do not necessarily translate into full compliance with the intervention. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19;Social norms;Social distancing;Normative expectations;Empirical expectations;Compliance;Social Dynamics;Collective Health |
| JEL: | D91 I18 H41 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13461&r= |
| By: | Smith, E. Keith; Milkoreit, Manjana |
| Abstract: | Trust in science is crucial to resolving societal problems. Americans across political ideologies have high levels of trust in science—a stable pattern observed over the past 50 years. Yet, trust in science varies by individual and group characteristics and faces several threats, from political actors, increased political polarization, or global crises. We revisit historical trends of trust in science amongst Americans by political orientation. We find steadily diverging trends by political views since the 1990s, and a drastically and rapidly opening gap since 2018. Recent unprecedented changes are driven by decreases in trust among conservatives but also increases among liberals. Existing theoretical accounts do not fully explain these patterns. Diverging attitudes towards the institution of science can diminish capacity for collective problem solving, eroding the shared foundation for decision making and political discourse. |
| Date: | 2024–06–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:fr6xk&r= |
| By: | Jeremy Clark (University of Canterbury); Abel François; Olivier Gergaud |
| Abstract: | Among the many studied determinants of voting, we predict that i) increased social capital will be positively associated with turnout, while increased heterogeneity will be negatively associated, ii) that both factors will work through their influence on the costs of information gathering and on the social norms of voting; and iii) that heterogeneity will interact with social capital in its association with turnout. We test these predictions at the extremely fine “meshblock” level by regressing New Zealand voter turnout in its 2017 national election on its 2013 census characteristics. We use roughly 40, 000 meshblock volunteering rates to measure social capital, and heterogeneity based primarily on ethnic fragmentation. We find social capital is positively associated with voter turnout, while heterogeneity is negatively associated. We find robust evidence consistent with ethnic heterogeneity working through information costs and social norms, but less so social capital. We also find a robust interaction between social capital and heterogeneity in their association with turnout, consistent with ethnic heterogeneity raising bridging social capital that has a stronger association with turnout than in-group bonding social capital. |
| Keywords: | Electoral turnout, social capital, population diversity, ethnic heterogeneity, volunteering |
| JEL: | D72 D91 H31 |
| Date: | 2024–06–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:24/09&r= |
| By: | Adam, Ammaarah; Ades, Raphael; Banks, William; Benning, Canbeck; Grant, Gwyneth; Forster-Brass, Harry; McGiveron, Owen; Miller, Joseph; Phelan, Daniel; Randazzo, Sebastian; Reilly, Matthew; Scott, Michael W.; Serban, Sebastian; Stockton, Carys; Wallis, Patrick |
| Abstract: | How was trust created and reinforced between the inhabitants of medieval and early modern cities? And how did the social foundations of trusting relationships change over time? Current research highlights the role of kinship, neighbourhood and associations, particularly guilds, in creating ‘relationships of trust’ and social capital in the face of high levels of migration, mortality and economic volatility, but tells us little about their relative importance or how they developed. We uncover a profound shift in the contribution of family and guilds to trust networks among the middling and elite of one of Europe’s major cities, London, over three centuries, from the 1330s to the 1680s. We examine almost 15, 000 networks of sureties created to secure orphans’ inheritances to measure the presence of trusting relationships connected by guild membership, family and place. We uncover a profound increase in the role of kinship – a re-embedding of trust within the family - and a decline of the importance of shared guild membership in connecting Londoner’s who secured orphans’ inheritances together. These developments indicate a profound transformation in the social fabric of urban society. |
| Keywords: | CUP deal |
| JEL: | N00 |
| Date: | 2024–05–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:122876&r= |
| By: | Danyang Jia (School of Cybersecurity, Northwestern Polytechnical University and School of Artificial Intelligence, OPtics and ElectroNics (iOPEN), Northwestern Polytechnical University, CHINA); Ivan Romic (School of Artificial Intelligence, OPtics and ElectroNics (iOPEN), Northwestern Polytechnical University, CHINA, Center for Computational Social Science, Kobe University, and Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, JAPAN); Lei Shi (School of Statistics and Mathematics, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, CHINA); Qi Su (Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China, and Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Control and Management, CHINA); Chen Liu (School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, CHINA); Jinzhuo Liu (School of Software, Yunnan University, CHINA); Petter Holme (Center for Computational Social Science, Kobe University, JANPAN and Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, FINLAND); Xuelong Li (School of Cybersecurity, Northwestern Polytechnical University and School of Artificial Intelligence, OPtics and ElectroNics (iOPEN), Northwestern Polytechnical University, CHINA); Zhen Wang (School of Cybersecurity, Northwestern Polytechnical University and School of Artificial Intelligence, OPtics and ElectroNics (iOPEN), Northwestern Polytechnical University, CHINA) |
| Abstract: | The awareness of individuals regarding their social network surroundings and their capacity to use social connections to their advantage are well-established human characteristics. Economic games, incorporated with network science, are frequently used to examine social behaviour. Traditionally, such game models and experiments artificially limit players' abilities to take varied actions toward distinct social neighbours (i.e., to operate their social networks). We designed an experimental paradigm that alters the degree of social network agency to interact with individual neighbours, and applied it to the prisoner's dilemma (N = 735), trust game (N = 735), and ultimatum game (N = 735) to investigate cooperation, trust, and fairness. The freedom to interact led to more prosocial behaviour across all three economic games and resulted in higher wealth and lower inequality compared to controls without such freedom. These findings suggest that human behaviour is more prosocial than current science indicates. |
| Keywords: | Behavioural science; Networks; Cooperation; Prosociality |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2023-11&r= |
| By: | Mladjan, Mrdjan M.; Nikolova, Elena; Ponomarenko, Olga |
| Abstract: | Institutions, defined as "the rules of the game in society", drive economic growth and prosperity. Institutions often arise from long-term processes influenced by geography, major historical events, culture, and, less commonly, religion. This chapter reviews the available evidence to demonstrate that religion has a strong effect on formal (laws, judicial and financial systems, contract enforcement) and informal (traditions, taboos, codes of conduct) institutions. Church-state relationships hundreds of years ago affect informal institutions like work ethic, preferences for rationality or spirituality, and attitudes towards innovation. In terms of formal institutions, there is evidence of causal effects of religious doctrines on institutions such as democratic government, independent courts, private property, or inheritance rights. Moreover, there is evidence that formal and informal institutions also influence religious institutions and doctrines. The chapter also reviews the theories of religious markets and secularization to conclude that neither of them are well positioned to predict how the relationship between religions and institutions will unfold in the future. The chapter then enumerates several empirical challenges inherent in the study of religion and institutions, and proposes way to overcome them. It also suggests several fruitful areas for future research, including using more fine-grained data and developing new theoretical tools, identifying mechanisms through both quantitative and qualitative data, and expanding the research focus beyond Christian denominations in order to focus on non-Western religions. |
| Keywords: | religion, institutions, culture |
| JEL: | Z12 D02 O43 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1447&r= |