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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2026–01–12
thirteen papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Ester Faia; Edward L. Glaeser; Saverio Simonelli; Martina Viarengo |
| Abstract: | What explains the dramatic differences in earnings across locations? We employ an administrative employer-employee linked dataset from Italy that includes the country’s entire workforce to estimate firm-worker or location-worker effects. We also estimate differences in human capital accumulation across firms and cities. We find that the elasticity of the location premia to density is smaller than in other settings and that other locational characteristics, such as segregation in school or the workplace and inter-generational mobility, are more strongly correlated with earnings and earnings growth. Our place-based estimates are similar if we focus on movers who were forced to relocate after the L’Aquila Earthquake. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that density levels jump up at the historic border between House of Savoy-ruled Piedmont and the Hapsburg Empire. Earnings today also jump at the border. This finding suggests that there may be some unintended effects of being a far-flung province of a distant empire, perhaps because of access to larger markets or the administrative and educational reforms that began under Empress Maria Theresa. |
| JEL: | J31 J61 N93 R10 R23 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34582 |
| By: | Grazzi, Matteo; Llamas, Paola; Lotti, Giulia; Peña, Werner |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we leverage a quasi-experimental design and innovative sources of information to examine the impact of rising social conflict and political instability in Haiti. By exploiting this geographical heterogeneity and leveraging data from Facebook and satellite imagery, we show the impact of different types of violence on economic activity in the context of countries with limited data availability. We find that 1 more political event or civil event in an arrondissement, is associated with a decrease by approximately 2% in economic activity in the following 5 months-time window. Importantly, the Facebook data also allows for a disaggregation of the effects by sector, with the most impacted sectors by rising insecurity being home services, business & utility services, and professional services. |
| Keywords: | social conflict;economic performance;Social media;activity quantile;nighttime lights |
| JEL: | C80 O54 E32 R11 Q34 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:14440 |
| By: | Kaiser, Ulrich (University of Zurich); Mata, José (Copenhagen Business School) |
| Abstract: | We study whether gender norms—proxied by Switzerland’s 1981 referendum on constitutional gender equality—continue to shape women’s entrepreneurship today, despite major demographic change. Using startup data for all Swiss municipalities from 2016 to 2023, we find that places with stronger historical support for gender equality have significantly higher women-to-men startup ratios. A one–percentage point increase in the 1981 “yes” vote share is associated with a 0.165 percent increase in this ratio. The result is robust to controlling for later gender-related referenda, extensive municipal characteristics, and contemporary policy measures. The association is stronger in municipalities with more stable populations and in less religious municipalities. Childcare spending alone is not linked to startup rates, but it positively affects women’s entrepreneurship when combined with supportive historical gender norms, highlighting the joint role of formal policies and informal social support. |
| Keywords: | Switzerland, female founders, cultural persistence, entrepreneurship, gender norms |
| JEL: | J16 L26 Z13 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18337 |
| By: | Katsunori Minami; Ryo Sakamoto |
| Abstract: | Gender equality plays a pivotal role in fostering human prosperity, shaping labor markets, fertility decisions, and the sustainability of social institutions. This study investigates how the prevailing gender norms in a country influence the fertility rate and long-term economic growth. To this end, we develop an overlapping generations model featuring endogenous fertility and labor supply in which both gender norms and research and development activities are explicitly incorporated. We show that conservative gender norms reduce both the fertility rate and the rate of income growth in the steady state. We further explore the impact of a policy intervention that relaxes gender norms and analyze the ensuing transition dynamics, deriving implications for policy design and welfare. Finally, we extend the model to examine how a gradual evolution in gender norms affects the long-run development of the economy. |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:1291r |
| By: | Naci H. Mocan; Nur Orak |
| Abstract: | The Istanbul Convention is an international treaty aimed at protecting women against violence. We employ survey datasets and investigate its effect on attitudes toward violence against women in Europe. Using difference-in-differences models we compare individuals in countries that signed and ratified the Convention with those in countries that signed but either never ratified or did so after the surveys were fielded. Entry into the Convention significantly reduced the likelihood that lower-educated individuals view violence against women as acceptable, but only in countries outside the former Eastern Bloc. In former Eastern Bloc countries, the Convention affected attitudes only among younger less-educated individuals who had limited exposure to communism—those who were no older than teenagers when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990. We show that younger cohorts in these countries tend to hold more individualistic and less pro-government attitudes and express greater trust in the courts and the justice system than older individuals. Finally, we find no effect of the Convention on attitudes toward other forms of norm-violating behavior, such as tax evasion, bribery, fare evasion, or drug use. These results indicate that the Convention had a targeted impact, and that its influence on shaping preferences depends on the broader cultural context which is itself shaped by institutions. |
| JEL: | K40 K42 P0 Z18 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34568 |
| By: | Despina Gavresi (DEM, University of Luxembourg); Anastasia Litina (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia); Ioannis Patios (University of Macedonia) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how exposure to a wide range of macroeconomic downturns shapes individual attitudes to politics and support for variety of populist attitudes in Europe. We try to capture the long-run and the contemporaneous exposure to crises. We first focus on economic downturns experienced during the impressionable years between ages 18 and 25. We use repeated cross-sectional data from the Eurobarometer surveys and exploit cross-country and cohort variation in exposure to recessions. Our baseline analysis relies on fixed-effects regressions controlling for individual characteristics and contemporaneous economic conditions. We then attempt to address identification concerns. To this end we implement a difference-in-differences design that compares cohorts differentially exposed to downturns within the same country. We find that individuals exposed to macroeconomic downturns in early adulthood are more likely to support populist parties and exhibit lower trust in national and European political institutions later in life. |
| Keywords: | Populism; Political attitudes; Institutional trust; OLS, Difference-in-differences |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcd:mcddps:2025_06 |
| By: | Walter, Johannes |
| Abstract: | Rising political polarization generates significant negative externalities for democratic institutions and economic stability, yet scalable interventions to reduce polarization remain scarce. In this paper, I study whether AI chatbots can reduce political polarization. In two preregistered online RCTs with representative U.S. samples, I find that AI significantly reduces polarization on the Ukraine war and immigration policy. In Experiment 1, AI reduced polarization by 20 percentage points, with effects persisting for one month. Experiment 2 pits AI against incentivized human persuaders and Static Text. I find no significant difference in effectiveness: all three reduced polarization by roughly 10 percentage points. While AI conversations were rated as more enjoyable, mechanism analysis reveals that persuasion is driven by learning and trust, not enjoyment. These results demonstrate AI's scalable persuasive power, highlighting its dual-use potential: it can be deployed to effectively reduce polarization, but also poses risks of misuse. |
| Keywords: | Political Polarization, AI Persuasion, Experimental Economics, Information Provision |
| JEL: | D72 D83 D91 O33 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:334534 |
| By: | Nicolas Berman (Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France); Mathieu Couttenier (ENS de Lyon, Center for Economic Research on Governance, Inequality and Conflict, CNRS and CEPR); Raphael Soubeyran (CEE-M, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, INRAE, Institut Agro, Montpellier, France) |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between culture and environmental conservation through the lens of deforestation. Focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2001- 2021, we show that changes of national leaders affect deforestation in a way that depends on the environmental culture of their ethnic group’s. We use data on folklore to measure the importance of forests in group-specific culture. We find that deforestation and land-intensive activities increase in the ethnic homelands of leaders whose ethnic groups have no or little forest-related culture. These patterns are reversed when the leader’s group has a salient forest culture. Our results suggest that culture is an important lever for environmental conservation in Africa. |
| Keywords: | Culture, Deforestation, Politics, Folklore, ethnicity, Africa |
| JEL: | Z1 Q5 D7 J15 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2537 |
| By: | Bargain, Olivier; Jara, H. Xavier; Rivera, David |
| Abstract: | Latent feelings of economic vulnerability and social stagnation may have catalyzed the unprecedented uprisings that shook Latin America and other parts of the world in 2018-2019. We document this process in the context of Chile, leveraging survey data on protest participation and its potential determinants. Specifically, we construct a “social gap” index, measuring the disconnect between objective and perceived social status. Our findings suggest that this status misperception predicts protest involvement beyond factors such as perceived living costs, the subjective value of public services, peer influence, redistributive views and political demands. Notably, the social gap operates independently of broader feelings of unfairness and anger toward inequalities in explaining protests. |
| Keywords: | protests; social gap; perceived inequality; social status |
| JEL: | D31 D63 D74 |
| Date: | 2025–11–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:130068 |
| By: | Despina Gavresi (DEM, University of Luxembourg); Anastasia Litina (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia) |
| Abstract: | In an era marked by repeated crises and the growing traction of populist movements, understanding the deep-rooted factors shaping EU cohesion has become increasingly urgent. This paper investigates how lifetime exposure to economic recessions influences individual attitudes toward the European Union (EU). Resorting to rich micro-data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and the Eurobarometer, we construct a detailed measure of economic hardship experienced during lifetime, capturing not just isolated downturns but the accumulated burden of multiple recessions over time. Importantly, we distinguish between various types of shocks-including output contractions, unemployment surges, consumption drops, participation in IMF adjustment programs, and the asymmetry or symmetry of crises across EU member states. We show that individuals with greater lifetime exposure to these economic shocks are more likely to distrust EU institutions, oppose further integration, vote for Eurosceptic parties, and support exiting the EU. These patterns are especially pronounced for asymmetric shocks, which disproportionately affect specific regions or countries, in contrast to symmetric shocks, which appear to foster a sense of shared fate and solidarity. A series of robustness tests-including placebo checks, heterogeneity analyses, diverse shock types and designs exploiting EU institutional structure -confirms the persistent impact of economic trauma on EU attitudes, underscoring the need to address historical recessions to safeguard cohesion and democratic legitimacy in the context of the EU. |
| Keywords: | Populism; Political attitudes; Institutional trust; OLS, Difference-in-differences |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcd:mcddps:2025_07 |
| By: | Shuhei Kitamura; Ryo Takahashi; Katsunori Yamada |
| Abstract: | Electoral accountability is a cornerstone of democratic governance, yet whether voters effectively punish corruption remains theoretically and empirically contested. While canonical models predict that corruption revelations reduce incumbent support, strategic voting considerations—especially beliefs about others’ behavior—can yield ambiguous accountability outcomes. We exploit a major corruption scandal involving Japan’s ruling party during a national election to examine how social information shapes electoral responses to misconduct. In a pre-registered field experiment, we randomly provided voters with information about prevailing social norms of intolerance toward the scandal. This intervention significantly increased overall turnout and challenger support, particularly among swing voters, consistent with enhanced accountability. Yet the same treatment increased incumbent support among ruling-party loyalists. We show that these heterogeneous effects are systematically driven by voters’ prior beliefs about others’ voting intentions: those expecting others to punish sanctioned more when learning they would not, whereas those expecting tolerance defended more when learning others would punish. These findings reconcile conflicting evidence on electoral accountability by showing how strategic considerations fundamentally shape democratic sanctioning, and suggest that information campaigns can either strengthen or undermine accountability depending on the distribution of voter expectations, with important implications for anti-corruption interventions. |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:1289r |
| By: | Martorano, Bruno (Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, RS: GSBE MGSoG); Metzger, Laura; Justino, Patricia; Iacoella, F. |
| Abstract: | We study whether exposure to social movements campaigning against income and gender income inequality shifts individual beliefs about inequality, reshapes preferences for redistribution, and translates into political participation in the UK. Since the Great Recession of the 2010s, the UK has seen significant growth in social movements, particularly those mobilizing against inequality. We focus on income and gender income inequality, two persistent and politically contested forms of inequality in advanced democracies like the UK. Responses to social movements can diverge sharply between them. Using observational data, we show that exposure to protests against inequality is strongly correlated with increased support for redistribution. To identify causal effects, we complement this evidence with an online experiment in which we randomly assign 1, 436 UK citizens to follow real social movement content focused on either income or gender income inequality over a two-week period on Facebook. Participants exposed to information about income inequality increase support for reducing income disparities, while those exposed to gender income inequality support targeted measures to address gender gaps. Both groups favor higher taxes on the wealthy and are more likely to take political action, including signing a petition, contacting a politician, or meeting a public official. |
| JEL: | D31 D72 H23 I38 J16 O15 |
| Date: | 2025–11–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2025027 |
| By: | Mohamadali Berahman; Madjid Eshaghi Gordji |
| Abstract: | Trust is the invisible glue that holds together the fabric of societies, economic systems, and political institutions. Yet, its dynamics-especially in real-world settings remain unpredictable and difficult to control. While classical trust game models largely rely on discrete frameworks with limited noise, they fall short in capturing sudden behavioral shifts, extreme volatility, or abrupt breakdowns in cooperation.Here, we propose-for the first time a comprehensive stochastic model of trust based on L\'evy processes that integrates three fundamental components: Brownian motion (representing everyday fluctuations), Poissonian jump intensity (capturing the frequency of shocks), and random distributions for jump magnitudes. This framework surpasses conventional models by enabling simulations of phenomena such as "sudden trust collapse, " "chaotic volatility, " and "nonlinear recoveries" dynamics often neglected in both theoretical and empirical studies.By implementing four key simulation scenarios and conducting a detailed parameter sensitivity analysis via 3D and contour plots, we demonstrate that the proposed model is not only mathematically more advanced, but also offers a more realistic representation of human dynamics compared to previous approaches. Beyond its technical contributions, this study outlines a conceptual framework for understanding fragile, jump-driven behaviors in social, economic, and geopolitical systems-where trust is not merely a psychological construct, but an inherently unstable and stochastic variable best captured through L\'evy based modeling. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2601.00008 |