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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2024‒10‒07
five papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Besley, Timothy; Dray, Sacha |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the link between trust in government, policymaking and compliance. It focuses on a specific channel whereby citizens who are convinced of the merits of a policy are more motivated to comply with it. This, in turn, reduces the government's cost of implementing this policy and may also increase the set of feasible interventions. As a result, state effectiveness is greater when citizens trust their government. The paper discusses alternative approaches to modelling the origins of trust, especially the link to the design of political institutions. We then provide empirical evidence consistent with the model's findings that compliance is increasing in government trust using the Integrated Values Survey and voluntary compliance during COVID-19 in the United Kingdom. |
| Keywords: | OUP deal |
| JEL: | I18 |
| Date: | 2024–08–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:122535 |
| By: | Banerjee, Sanchayan; Picard, Julien |
| Abstract: | Adopting low-carbon diets is important to meet our climate goals. Prior experimental evidence suggests green nudges help people adopt such diets, more so when encouraged to think through them. In this paper, we re-evaluate this role of reflection in a “social norm” nudge to promote intentions for climate-friendly diets in the United Kingdom. Using 5, 555 English respondents, we find that the social norm nudge increases meal order intentions for low-carbon diets versus the control condition. Asking people to reveal their personal dietary norms after exposing them to these social norms (“lower-order nudge+”) does not produce any measurable change compared to the nudge. However, when people are subsequently encouraged to think and pledge to climate-friendly diets (“higher-order nudge+”), the effectiveness of the social norm nudge increases by 90% or more. |
| Keywords: | commitment; nudge; nudge+; personal norms; social norms |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2023–10–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:120057 |
| By: | Enrico Cantoni; Vincent Pons; Jérôme Schäfer |
| Abstract: | In recent years, voter ID laws and convenience voting have generated heated partisan debates. To shed light on these policy issues, we survey the recent evidence on the institutional determinants and effects of voter turnout and broaden the perspective beyond the most debated rules. We begin by discussing the importance of electoral participation both for its consequences on policy choices and for democratic legitimacy. Building on a simple cost-benefit model of voting, we then review (quasi)-experimental work studying the effects of voting procedures and of other election rules. Voting procedures (which determine how people vote) primarily affect the cost of participation. The obstacles they create matter more when they occur ahead of the election, when the stakes are not salient (e.g., voter registration requirements), and less when parties mobilize voters against them and when alternative ways to vote exist (e.g., when people can choose whether to vote by mail or in person). Election rules upstream from the election (such as campaign finance laws) and downstream (such as the use of proportional representation vs. plurality rule to map vote choices into a set of election winners) mostly operate through benefits, for instance by affecting electoral competitiveness and the number of candidates. We conclude by highlighting questions for future research. |
| JEL: | D72 D73 J15 P00 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32941 |
| By: | Claudia Martínez V. (Access to Medicine Foundation, Netherlands); Rubén Poblete-Cazenave (Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | A significant number of women experience physical or sexual violence throughout their lives, with a considerable portion of such incidents occurring in public spaces. Harmful social norms emphasizing men’s power over women have been highlighted as one crucial culprit. We study a public festivity in India, Holi (the festival of colors), where a common phrase: “Bura na mano Holi Hai†(Don’t feel offended, it’s Holi) has been misappropriated by many to justify inappropriate behavior. Leveraging different dates of the celebrations based on the lunar calendar, we document a dramatic increase of over 170% assaults against women during Holi. We analyze how perpetrators’ and victims’ gender norms drive violence against women. First, we find that Holi exacerbates existing attitudes towards violence against women, where there is higher violence in districts where men believe that violence against women is justified. Second, we find a male backlash effect, where there is higher violence against women in districts where women believe that violence against women is inappropriate. While patriarchal norms influence reporting behavior and women’s mobility, neither underreporting nor reduced mobility during Holi appear to be the main drivers of the second effect. Overall, this paper highlights the critical role of social norms and gender imbalances in shaping violence against women, underscoring the urgent need for intervention. |
| Keywords: | Violence against women, social norms, street harassment |
| JEL: | J16 K14 K42 O12 Z10 |
| Date: | 2024–06–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20240041 |
| By: | Rosanne Freak-Poli (School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University, Australia); Stephen P. Jenkins (Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, UK); Michael A. Shields (Centre for Health Economics, Monash Business School, Monash University, Australia); Trong-Anh Trinh (Centre for Health Economics, Monash Business School, Monash University, Australia) |
| Abstract: | Despite a substantial literature on the links between social relationships and mortality, the size of the relative risks from loneliness, social isolation, and living alone, remain controversial. Further research is therefore important given demographic changes meaning that more people are living alone, for longer, and with chronic health conditions. Using 19 waves of high-quality Australian longitudinal data we provide new evidence using multiple measures of social relationships, model specifications, and adjustments for confounding. We focus on chronic measures of (poor) social relationships and provide separate estimates by gender. We find that both functional and structural aspects of social relationships are independently strongly associated with all-cause mortality. We estimate a hazard ratio for loneliness of 1.41, which is greater for males (1.55) than females (1.24). These hazard ratios are larger than found for social isolation (1.19). We also find a strong relationship between being an active member of a club and reduced mortality risk, but no evidence that living alone is an independent risk factor. We provide useful comparisons with the mortality risks associated with smoking and household income. Overall, our findings suggest that interventions should focus on reducing both loneliness and social isolation, as well as encouraging active social participation. |
| Keywords: | Mortality, Social Relationships, Loneliness, Social Support, Social Isolation |
| JEL: | I12 I10 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mhe:chemon:2024-15 |