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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2024‒10‒14
ten papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Corinth, Kevin (American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research); O’Rourke, Thomas (American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research); Winship, Scott (American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research) |
| Abstract: | There have been several attempts to measure social capital—the value inhering in relationships—at an aggregate level, but researchers lack comprehensive individual-level social capital measures. Using a combination of direct linkage and imputation across several nationally representative datasets, we produce a comprehensive measure of social capital at the individual level. We validate our measure by aggregating it to the state level, finding strong correlations with existing state-level social capital measures. We document substantial social capital disparities between white Americans, on the one hand, and black and Hispanic Americans, on the other, as well as a strong educational gradient, which is comparatively weaker for Hispanics. We also provide new evidence on the relationship between income and social capital, using a comprehensive measure of income. We find that social capital increases with income but at a decreasing rate. The source of income matters, as an extra $10, 000 in market income is associated with a 0.23 standard deviation increase in social capital for those with the lowest levels of market income, while an extra $10, 000 in government transfer income is associated with a 0.08 standard deviation decrease. |
| Keywords: | social capital, comprehensive income, inequality |
| JEL: | Z13 J12 D31 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17257 |
| By: | Freak-Poli, Rosanne (Monash University); Jenkins, Stephen P. (London School of Economics); Shields, Michael A. (Monash University); Trinh, Trong-Anh (Monash University) |
| 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, club membership, living alone, smoking, income, survival analysis |
| JEL: | I14 I18 I31 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17274 |
| By: | Sule Alan; Michela Carlana; Marinella Leone |
| Abstract: | We evaluate an intervention designed to increase teachers’ awareness of social isolation by providing them with their own students’ social network and information on developmental risks associated with social exclusion. Using friendship data and incentive-compatible measures of antisocial and prosocial behavior, we find that the intervention reduces social isolation and antisocial behavior without improving prosocial behavior. The reduction in antisocial behavior leads to better economic outcomes in treated classrooms, measured by average payoffs and the Gini coefficient. Our findings highlight the personal and communal benefits of alleviating social exclusion and antisocial peer relationships in schools. |
| JEL: | C93 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32954 |
| By: | Vitalis, Kyriacos (University of Cyprus); Stefanidis, Dimosthenis; Pallis, George; Dikaiakos, Marios; Nicolaou, Nicos; Nicolaides, Christos (University of Cyprus) |
| Abstract: | We leverage a rich online social network and entrepreneurial performance dataset to identify the effect of entrepreneurs’ social network activity on their professional success. We focus our analysis on ~79K founders of organizations listed in Crunchbase with an active personal Twitter account. We employ Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) multiple linear regression, where the dependent variable is the founder’s career success indicator as extracted from Crunchbase, and the predictor variables are the social network presence and activity indicators as extracted from Twitter. We find that the founder’s average annual number of tweets is negatively associated with different success indicators, demonstrating a significant adverse impact of mere tweeting on success. To address endogeneity concerns, we implement panel data analysis with Fixed Effects (FE) and Instrumental Variables (IV) by the means of Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) regression, the results of which are largely consistent with those of OLS main analysis. |
| Date: | 2024–09–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:x6vda |
| By: | Niikura, Junki |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of telework on social capital in the workplace in Japan. Telework1 has gained popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a survey2 conducted by the research firm Persol, the teleworking rate was 25.6% as of July 13 to 18, 2022. Thus, roughly one in four workers in Japan is teleworking. In addition, the government is promoting the use of telework as a flexible work style. While telework is encouraged as a flexible way of working, the rate of telework implementation has not increased with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. One reason for this may be reflected in the results of a survey of attitudes toward telework, where both advantages and disadvantages were mentioned, with lack of communication cited as a top concern by both workers and management. According to a survey3 conducted by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC) from June 5 to 9, 2020, 37.6% of teleworkers cited "lack of communication with superiors and colleagues" as a disadvantage4. In addition, according to the "Questionnaire on the Merits and Demerits Felt by Companies in Telework5" conducted by Teikoku Databank, Ltd., from February 4 to 8, 2022, 26.6% of companies cited "reduced internal communication and difficulty in communication" as a demerit of telework. The most frequently cited disadvantages of telework are those related to communication. Communication concerns in telework arise because the amount of information available is less than that available in person and because a method of communication must be adapted. Given that communication is the foundation of trust, this study questions whether such decreased information during the communication process fundamentally affects the social capital of coworkers in the workplace. In this paper, we hypothesize that a lack of communication undermines social capital in the workplace. To examine the above hypothesis, this study compares the social capital of teleworkers and nonteleworkers. Specifically, an internet survey ("Telework and Corporate Social Capital Survey") is conducted to ask teleworkers and nonteleworkers about their respective internal trust relationships. Based on the responses, a social capital variable is then created and compared to determine whether teleworkers' social capital is lower than that of nonteleworkers. The next section summarizes previous research on the relationship between telework and social capital. |
| Keywords: | Telework, Social Capital, Japan |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itsb24:302490 |
| By: | Ms. Paola Giuliano; Mr. Antonio Spilimbergo |
| Abstract: | A growing body of work has shown that aggregate shocks affect the formation of preferences and beliefs. This article reviews evidence from sociology, social psychology, and economics to assess the relevance of aggregate shocks, whether the period in which they are experienced matters, and whether they alter preferences and beliefs permanently. We review the literature on recessions, inflation experiences, trade shocks, and aggregate non-economic shocks including migrations, wars, terrorist attacks, pandemics, and natural disasters. For each aggregate shock, we discuss the main empirical methodologies, their limitations, and their comparability across studies, outlining possible mechanisms whenever available. A few conclusions emerge consistently across the reviewed papers. First, aggregate shocks impact many preferences and beliefs, including political preferences, risk attitudes, and trust in institutions. Second, the effect of shocks experienced during young adulthood is stronger and longer lasting. Third, negative aggregate economic shocks generally move preferences and beliefs to the right of the political spectrum, while the effects of non-economic adverse shocks are more heterogeneous and depend on the context. |
| Date: | 2024–09–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2024/195 |
| By: | Jin, Shuxian; Spadaro, Giuliana (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Balliet, Daniel |
| Abstract: | Cooperation underlies the ability of groups to realize collective benefits (e.g., creation of public goods). Yet, cooperation can be difficult to achieve when people face situations with conflicting interests between what is best for individuals versus the collective (i.e., social dilemmas). To address this challenge, groups can implement rules about structural changes in a situation. But what institutional rules can best facilitate cooperation? Theoretically, rules can be made to affect structural features of a social dilemma, such as the possible actions, outcomes, and people involved. We derived 13 pre-registered hypotheses from existing work and collected six decades of empirical research to test how nine structural features influence cooperation within prisoner’s dilemmas and public goods dilemmas. We do this by meta-analyzing mean levels of cooperation across studies (Study 1, k = 2, 340, N = 229, 528), and also examining how manipulations of these structural features in social dilemmas affect cooperation within studies (Study 2, k = 909). Results indicated that lower conflict of interests was associated with higher cooperation, and that (1) the implementation of sanctions (i.e., reward and punishment of behaviors) and (2) allowing for communication most strongly enhanced cooperation. However, we found inconsistent support for the hypotheses that group size and matching design affect cooperation. Other structural features (e.g., symmetry of dilemmas, sequential decision making, payment) were not associated with cooperation. Overall, these findings inform institutions that can (or not) facilitate cooperation. |
| Date: | 2024–09–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:9r2qb |
| By: | Rhys Murrian (Department of Economics and SoDa Labs, Monash University); Paul A. Raschky (Department of Economics and SoDa Labs, Monash University); Klaus Ackermann (Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics and SoDa Labs, Monash University) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically investigates how an individual’s network influences their purchase and subsequent use of experience goods. Utilising data on the network and game-ownership of over 108 million users from the world’s largest video game platform, we analyse whether a user’s friendship network influences their decision to purchase single-player video games. Our identification strategy uses an instrumental variable (IV) approach that employs the temporal lag of purchasing decisions from second degree friends. We find strong peer effects in the individual game adoption in the contemporary week. The effect is stronger if the friend who purchased the game is an old friend compared to a key player in the friendship network. Comparing the results to adoption decisions for a major label game, we find peer effects of a similar size and duration. However, the time subsequently spent playing the games is higher for players who were neither influenced by a peer who is a key player nor an old friend. Considering the increasing importance of online networks on consumption decisions, our findings offer some first insights on the heterogeneity of peer effects between old and key player friends and also provide evidence in consumers' biases in social learning. |
| Keywords: | networks, experience goods, product adoption, taste projection |
| JEL: | D12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajr:sodwps:2024-03 |
| By: | Arnone, Massimo; Leogrande, Angelo; Drago, Carlo; Costantiello, Alberto |
| Abstract: | This research explores how regional socioeconomic variables affect the perception of social trust and support networks (PYCC) in Italian regions, and examines the implications for public policy designed to strengthen social cohesion. This study examines the variable "People You Can Count On" (PYCC) from the ISTAT-BES dataset, focusing on its distribution across Italian regions between 2013 and 2022. Using clustering through a k-Means algorithm optimized with the Silhouette coefficient and the Elbow method, three distinct clusters of regions emerged, highlighting significant differences in social support networks. An econometric model was employed to estimate the PYCC variable, factoring in socioeconomic indicators such as employment rates, income inequality, and social participation. The results indicate a complex interplay between socioeconomic conditions and social trust, with regions in the South and Islands showing increased community support, while many Northern regions experienced declines. The study suggests that areas with lower economic conditions often foster stronger social networks, driven by necessity. These findings underline the importance of targeted public policies aimed at fostering social cohesion, particularly in regions facing economic challenges. Policy implications include enhancing education, supporting small enterprises, and promoting social housing and welfare initiatives. Strengthening community participation and volunteering are also highlighted as critical strategies to build resilient support networks. Overall, the research provides valuable insights into the regional disparities of social trust and the role of socioeconomic factors in shaping community support across Italy. |
| Keywords: | Altruism, Social Trust, k-Means, Machine-Learning, Silhouette Coefficient, Elbow Method, Panel Data, Regional Disparities |
| JEL: | D6 D63 D64 D9 J21 |
| Date: | 2024–09–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:122076 |
| By: | Sylvain B. Ngassam (Dschang, Cameroon); Simplice A. Asongu (Johannesburg, South Africa); Gildas Tiwang Ngueuleweu (Dschang, Cameroon) |
| Abstract: | This research empirically analyzes the effect of social media on fragility. It goes beyond political grounds which oppose techno-optimistic to techno-pessimistic perceptions of the impact of social media to analyze its consequences on global, Security fragility, economic and social fragilities. The research uses annual data from a panel of 47 African countries for the period 2000–2018. Results reveal that the use of social media by the public to organize offline political actions has no outcome on global fragility. However, its use by elites for the same end accentuates global state fragility. This operates through Security and political fragilities. Fragility is negatively associated with higher civil society participation, education and democracy. The use of social media to organize offline political actions either by people or by elites in the context of higher civil society participation reduces fragility, while its use either by people or by elites in the context of higher educational level accentuates state fragility. The use of social media to organize offline political actions by people in the context of democracy boosts fragility but its use by elites in the same framework reduces fragility. There is a need to sensitize people, especially elites in Africa on the threats and opportunities of social media. There is also a necessity to develop a dynamic, well-educated and well-organized civil society and population in order to better valorize the opportunities that social media represents. |
| Keywords: | Social media, state fragility, security fragility, political fragility, economic fragility and social fragility |
| JEL: | G20 O38 O40 O55 P37 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agd:wpaper:24/034 |