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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2024‒09‒30
nine papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Cevat Giray Aksoy (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), King’s College London); Barry Eichengreen (University of California, Berkeley); Anastasia Litina (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia); Cem Özgüzel (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) a); Chan Yu (University of International Business and Economics) |
| Abstract: | Scholars and politicians have expressed concern that immigrants from countries with low levels of political trust transfer those attitudes to their destination countries. Using large-scale survey data covering 38 countries and exploiting origin-country variation across different cohorts and surveys, we show that, to the contrary, immigrants more exposed to institutional corruption before migrating exhibit higher levels of political trust in their new country. Higher trust is observed for national political institutions only and does not carry over to other supra-national institutions and individuals. We report evidence that higher levels of political trust among immigrants persist, leading to greater electoral participation and political engagement in the long run. The impact of home-country corruption on political trust in the destination country is further amplified by large differences in levels of income and democracy between home and host countries, which serve to highlight the contrast in the two settings. It is lessened by exposure to media, a source of independent information about institutional quality. Finally, our extensive analyses indicate that self-selection into host countries based on trust is highly unlikely and the results also hold when focusing only on forced migrants who were unlikely to have been subject to selection. |
| Keywords: | Corruption, Institutions, Immigrants, Political Trust |
| JEL: | Z1 D73 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcd:mcddps:2024_08 |
| By: | Harashima, Taiji |
| Abstract: | Information or disinformation is more likely to be believed if it comes from a trusted person or source. This means that the impact of disinformation will greatly differ depending on the level of trust. Moreover, one person’s judgement can be influenced by other people’s judgements, which conversely means that one person’s judgement can influence other people’s judgements. To examine this relationship, I construct a model of uncovering disinformation and combine it with a model of disinformation dissemination. I show that as the level of mutual trust in an economy (society) increases, the probability of uncovering disinformation increases, and a high level of mutual trust greatly restrains disinformation from being believed and accepted, which will consequently considerably increase efficiency in various aspects of economic activities. That is, mutual trust is an important factor to achieve high levels of economic, social, and perhaps political activities. |
| Keywords: | Disinformation, Efficiency, Externality, Mutual trust, Productivity, Trust |
| JEL: | D80 |
| Date: | 2024–09–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:121865 |
| By: | Wu, Fengyu; Nugent, Jeffrey B. |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of civic engagement, an important form of social capital from the supply side, in buffering the adverse effects of challenging life circumstances in three key domains-employment, marriage, and health-on individual subjective well-being, specifically in terms of overall life evaluations. Our findings reveal that the negative association between divorce, separation, or widowhood and overall life evaluations can be mitigated through active associational memberships (of both the Putnam and Olson types), and three forms of civic engagement in broader network structures (i.e., donating money, volunteering, and helping strangers). In situations of poor health, however, only Olson-type memberships, donating money, volunteering, and helping strangers are found to mitigate the negative association with overall life evaluations. Furthermore, the negative association between unemployment and overall life evaluations is alleviated only by Putnam-type memberships. We also explore heterogeneity in the extent of such mitigation across individual characteristics (e.g., gender and age) and country-level factors (e.g., level of development and region). Finally, we find that the most commonly studied measure of social capital, namely, social trust, does not serve as a significant mediator in any of the relationships examined. Our analysis utilizes data from waves 3, 5, 6, and 7 of the World Values Survey and the Gallup World Poll conducted between 2009 and 2021. |
| Keywords: | Subjective Well-being, Life Satisfaction, Social Capital, Civic Engagement, Challenging Life Conditions |
| JEL: | I31 Z13 A13 J64 J12 I10 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1489 |
| By: | Despina Gavresi (DEM, University of Luxembourg); Anastasia Litina (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia) |
| Abstract: | This paper establishes population aging as a driving force of populism in a multilevel regression analysis of individuals living in European countries over the period 2002-2019. The focus is on the effect of ``aggregate'' population aging as opposed to individual aging. Populism expressed as populist attitudes is measured with individual-level data of nine consecutive rounds of the European Social Survey. We use data on voting for populist parties, political trust, and attitudes towards immigration. Our findings suggest an association of population aging with a declining electoral turnout, a higher support for populist parties, lower trust in political institutions, and a rise in anti-immigrant hostility. These effects are observed across both young and elderly voters. |
| Keywords: | Population Aging, Populist Voting, Immigrant Attitudes, Trust |
| JEL: | D72 J10 P00 Z13 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcd:mcddps:2024_07 |
| By: | Rusch, Hannes (RS: GSBE UM-BIC, Microeconomics & Public Economics, RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research); Vostroknutov, Alexander (RS: GSBE UM-BIC, RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Microeconomics & Public Economics) |
| Abstract: | Social norms have become a conceptual cornerstone in the study of human decision making across the social sciences. The functions of social norms in guiding individual and collective decision-making have been extensively scrutinized empirically, too. However, possible evolutionary origins of the psychological mechanisms required to carry out these functions are less well understood. In particular, trajectories from individually adaptive to socially functional heuristics for norm formation have rarely been studied. Here, we trace such a trajectory. We present a model that allows for the comparison of two heuristics broadly applicable across individual and social decision contexts: ‘rejoicing’ own achievements vs. ‘regretting’ missed opportunities. We find that (i) both perform better than the homo oeconomicus benchmark in individual decision problems under plausible ecological assumptions and (ii) each is adaptive in different environments. We argue that observation (i) provides a potent microfoundation for social norms as a product of co-optation of individually evolved heuristics, i.e., a reduction of social norm formation to the evolution of individual traits. Moreover, observation (ii) lends itself to empirical testing, thus laying the ground for a new wave of studies in the literature fascinated with human norm psychology. |
| Date: | 2024–09–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2024011 |
| By: | Görg, Holger; Jäkel, Ina Charlotte |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate whether gender norms and institutions act as a constraint to the performance of female businesses. We exploit novel and unique micro data on start-ups in Denmark, which we combine with information on individual-level characteristics of the entrepreneur as main decision maker of the firm. We overcome the challenge of disentangling norms and institutional biases against women from other constraints and hurdles that female businesses might face by exploiting detailed trade data. In this trade context, we study the relative performance of firms across markets with varying institutions, while controlling for other factors that affect female businesses uniformly across all markets. We provide evidence that gender inequality and institutional biases against women in trade partner countries play an important role in explaining gender differences in export and import behaviour. We also perform an event study of a concrete policy change in a destination market - the introduction of quotas for the share of females on the boards of directors in Norway - and how it has affected the gender gap in trade participation. |
| Keywords: | Gender Inequality, Firm Internationalization, Start-up Performance |
| JEL: | F14 J16 M13 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:302556 |
| By: | Rishabh Tyagi (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Peter Eibich (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Vegard Skirbekk (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of job loss on the risk of separation among German couples. We focus on job losses due to plant closures and involuntary dismissals as a source of variation that is likely to be independent of other individual risk factors for partnership dissolution. We use panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (1986–2019) for persons aged 20-65. We use event study design and propensity score matching combined with the difference-in-differences approach to analyse the effects of involuntary job loss on the likelihood of divorce or separation within three years. First, in our event study design, we find an increase in the probability of union dissolution in the year following job loss by around two percentage points (ppts). In our matching design combined with the difference-in-differences approach, union dissolution risk increases by 2.12 ppts for our treatment group compared to our control group within three years of the job loss. This increase in union dissolution risk is slightly higher in the case of male job loss (2.23 ppts) than for job loss among women (1.64 ppts) over three years compared to those not exposed to involuntary job loss. We analyse differences between East and West Germany and between migrants from different countries of origin to examine the role of gender norms. Gender norms in the place of origin do not seem to explain the increased union dissolution risk. However, the individual-level gender norms based on males’ share of home production activities in the couple over the years show an increased risk of union dissolution for the traditional half and no effect for the liberal half of the men losing their jobs. The effect of involuntary job loss on union dissolution risk is mediated by declining family life satisfaction, males’ share of hours spent on home production and lower household income for the person experiencing involuntary job loss. |
| Keywords: | Germany, dismissal, division of labor, divorce, economic demography |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2024-027 |
| By: | Estefanía Galván (Instituto de Economía, FCEA, Universidad de la Republica); Cecilia García-Peñalosa (Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, AMSE, Marseille France) |
| Abstract: | A considerable body of work has shown that motherhood is accompanied by a reduction in labor market participation and hours of market work, while more recent ndings indicate that women who earn more than their husbands tend to subsequently take actions that reduce their market income. Both patterns of behaviour have been interpreted as women trying to conform to child-rearing norms and to the prescription that the husband should be the main breadwinner. In this paper we use panel data for US couples to re-examine women's behaviour when they become mothers and when they are the main breadwinner. We start by asking whether the arrival of a child a ects women who are the main breadwinner and those who are not in the same way, and then turn to how mothers and childless women react when they are the main breadwinner. Our results are consistent with the breadwinner norm only a ecting mothers, suggesting that the salience of gender norms may depend on the household's context, notably on whether or not children are present. Concerning the arrival of a child, we nd that although the labor supply of women who earn more than their husbands initially responds to motherhood less than that of secondary earners, the two groups converge after 10 years. Moreover, women in the former category exhibit a disproportionately large increase in the share of housework they perform after becoming mothers. The latter results suggest that the presence of children pushes women to seek to compensate breaking a norm by adhering to another one. |
| Keywords: | gender identity norms, female labor supply, children, relative income |
| JEL: | D10 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2424 |
| By: | Despina Gavresi (DEM, University of Luxembourg); Anastasia Litina (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia); George Mavropoulos (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia); Sofia Tsitou (Department of Economics, University of Ioannina) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the interplay between social norms i.e., attitudes on gender equality and strength of family ties, and the spread of COVID-19. To undertake our analysis we combine sub-national (Nuts 1 regions) data for the social norms from the Integrated Values Survey (IVS) from 1981 to 2019 and the spread of COVID-19 measured by the excess mortality rate in Nuts 1 European regions in 2020 and 2021. Exploiting regional variation, we empirically establish that in regions with norms favoring gender equality, the excess mortality associated with the spread of COVID-19 is lower. Our hypothesized underlying mechanism is that women respect social distancing more, thereby in a country where women enjoy more respect, the influence more strongly their families to do the same thus diminishing the virus diffusion. Concerning the strength of family times, we find that regions with stronger family ties are associated with a higher COVID-19 excess mortality rate, hinting to the higher involvement of the elderly in family affairs. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, Women Equality, Family Ties, Social Norms, Culture |
| JEL: | O4 Z12 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcd:mcddps:2024_06 |