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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2025–05–19
six papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Barrios-Fernández, Andrés; Neilson, Christopher; Zimmerman, Seth |
| Abstract: | Do elite colleges help talented students join the social elite, or help incumbent elites retain their positions? We combine intergenerationally-linked data from Chile with a regression discontinuity design to show that, looking across generations, elite colleges do both. Lower-status individuals who gain admission to elite college programs transform their children's social environment. Children become more likely to attend high-status private schools and colleges, and to live near and befriend high-status peers. In contrast, academic achievement is unaffected. Simulations combining descriptive and quasi-experimental findings show that elite colleges tighten the link between social and human capital while decreasing intergenerational social mobility. |
| Keywords: | elite universities; intergenerational mobility; human capital; social capital |
| JEL: | D64 J62 I20 |
| Date: | 2024–08–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:126793 |
| By: | Gary Charness; Eugen Dimant; Uri Gneezy; Erin Krupka |
| Abstract: | Eliciting social norms is essential for understanding a range of behaviors in economic contexts. This paper reviews key experimental approaches to social-norm measurement, comparing the methods, practical considerations, and specific conditions under which each is most effective. We discuss various social norm elicitation techniques, including coordination-based, opinion-based, and distributional approaches. Our findings suggest that coordination-game approaches are the most widely adopted and tested; they deliver robust results, particularly in contexts with a single dominant norm. Importantly, while early methods focused on eliciting mean or modal normative beliefs, recent work shifts focus to eliciting beliefs about the distribution of normative beliefs. This allows the researcher to draw inferences on the degree of uncertainty that underlies norm assessments. This paper aims to help experimentalists and practitioners choose suitable norm-elicitation methods that are aligned with research objectives and logistical constraints. |
| Keywords: | methodology, norm elicitation, social norms. |
| JEL: | C91 D91 Z13 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11840 |
| By: | Martin Ottmann; Patricia Justino |
| Abstract: | Russia's invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory since 2014 has forced its government to implement emergency measures that challenge legal order. This paper examines how citizens' exposure to these security responses shapes their perceptions of the rule of law. Using proximity to war violence as a proxy for state emergency measures, we analyse World Values Survey data collected before (2011) and after (2020) the Donbas conflict alongside spatially weighted conflict data. |
| Keywords: | Rule of law, Armed conflict, Survey, Trust |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2025-28 |
| By: | Pei Kuang; Michael Weber; Shihan Xie |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of political polarization on public trust in the Fed and its influence on macroeconomic expectations. Using a large-scale survey experiment which we fielded on President Trump's 2025 inauguration day, we study how households form beliefs about the Fed regarding its political leaning, independence, and trustworthiness. Political alignment significantly shapes perceptions: individuals who view the Fed as politically aligned report higher independence of and trust in the Fed, leading to lower inflation expectations and uncertainty. Strategic communication on institutional structure and policy objectives effectively mitigates perception biases, reinforcing the Fed’s credibility and enhancing its policy effectiveness. |
| JEL: | D72 D73 D74 E63 E70 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33524 |
| By: | Velasco, Andrés; Funk, Robert |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits the standard explanations of the violent Chilean protests of late 2019, and in particular their exclusive focus on the role of inequality, which in fact had been falling prior to the emergence of unrest. Instead, we suggest that blame may lie in a crisis of trust in institutions, political and otherwise. We employ a formal model of how trust in government institutions can arise —and also disappear— overnight. In that model, the level of trust is tied (but not uniquely tied) to the level of civic capital in a society. If civic capital is above a certain threshold, then trust can only be high and increasing, but if civic capital is below that threshold, then the outcome is indeterminate, meaning the level of trust is vulnerable to self-fulfilling bouts of optimism or pessimism. The threshold for civic capital can be shifted by exogenous shocks to parameter values, including the quality of institutions, with the consequence that small shocks can have small and lasting effects if they take the system from one region to another. We document how these dynamics resemble the facts from Chile, where a small drop in reported institutional quality was associated with a large drop in measured trust around the time of the protests. In turn, the protests involved patterns of behavior (like the destruction of urban infrastructure, the evasion of user fees in buses and trains, and the non-repayment of student loans) which further deteriorated the capacity of the state to provide certain quality public services, and aggravated the decline in institutional trust. |
| Keywords: | crisis management; dynamic games; political economy; public services; trust; checking permissions via ORS |
| JEL: | C73 H11 H41 P16 |
| Date: | 2024–12–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:126947 |
| By: | Michael J. Yuan; Carlos Campoy; Sydney Lai; James Snewin; Ju Long |
| Abstract: | Decentralized AI agent networks, such as Gaia, allows individuals to run customized LLMs on their own computers and then provide services to the public. However, in order to maintain service quality, the network must verify that individual nodes are running their designated LLMs. In this paper, we demonstrate that in a cluster of mostly honest nodes, we can detect nodes that run unauthorized or incorrect LLM through social consensus of its peers. We will discuss the algorithm and experimental data from the Gaia network. We will also discuss the intersubjective validation system, implemented as an EigenLayer AVS to introduce financial incentives and penalties to encourage honest behavior from LLM nodes. |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2504.13443 |