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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2026–04–20
eight papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Elliott, M.; Golub, B.; Leduc, M. V. |
| Abstract: | Complex organizations accomplish tasks through many steps of collaboration among workers. Corporate culture supports collaborations by establishing norms and reducing misunderstandings. Because a strong corporate culture relies on costly, voluntary investments by many workers, we model it as an organizational public good, subject to standard free-riding problems, which become severe in large organizations. Our main finding is that voluntary contributions to culture can nevertheless be sustained, because an organization's equilibrium productivity is endogenously highly sensitive to individual contributions. However, the completion of complex tasks is then necessarily fragile to small shocks that damage the organization's culture. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Culture, Networks, Fragility |
| Date: | 2026–03–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2624 |
| By: | Diego Marino-Fages (Durham University); Agustina Martínez-Pozo (University of Leicester) |
| Abstract: | How does the advent of political information influence social norms? This paper examines the impact of Jair Bolsonaro’s victory in the 2018 Brazilian presidential electionon the prevalence of hate speech. We apply Natural Language Processing techniques to detect hate speech in over 37.6 million tweets, and leverage the electoral surprise ofBolsonaro’s victory in a difference-in-differences design. Our findings reveal a substantial increase in online hate speech following the election, particularly in municipalities where Bolsonaro’s vote share was lower—where his local and national support diverged most. The increase is primarily driven by the extensive margin of hate speech and is concentrated in homophobic and sexist content—areas in which Bolsonaro’s rhetoric was highly controversial. Overall, these patterns suggest that the election outcome reshaped perceptions of the social acceptability of expressing hate. |
| Keywords: | Hate speech; Social Media; Social Norms |
| JEL: | D72 D83 J15 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aoz:wpaper:391 |
| By: | Alisher Aldashev; Alexander M. Danzer |
| Abstract: | Ceremonies are central to social life, yet the pressure to conform to community spending norms traps households in a collectively suboptimal equilibrium, imposing severe financial burdens. Using nationally and regionally representative longitudinal data from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, we document that ceremonial expenditures are sizeable, display striking income inelasticities, and are strongly shaped by local spending norms, making celebrations disproportionately burdensome for poorer households. We evaluate two distinct regulatory approaches through separate natural experiments: a top-down legal ban on lavish wedding celebrations in Tajikistan and a bottom-up, community-driven norm agreement in Kyrgyzstan—interventions with close analogues in Afghanistan, China, India, and Pakistan. Both yield reductions in ceremonial spending, with household savings larger under the bottom-up approach, but they operate through fundamentally different compliance mechanisms. The top-down reform hinges on external monitoring and credible sanctions, while the bottom-up intervention relies on social trust and norm internalization. These findings identify external enforcement and social trust as the key compliance mechanisms underlying top-down and bottom-up consumption regulations respectively, with broader implications for the design of policies targeting socially motivated expenditures. |
| Keywords: | ceremonial spending, conspicuous consumption, compliance, monitoring, trust, anti-poverty policy |
| JEL: | D12 D04 H31 O17 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12610 |
| By: | Shuhei Kitamura; Ryo Takahashi; Katsunori Yamada |
| Abstract: | Elections can deter corruption only if voters punish tainted incumbents. We study whether punishment depends on second-order beliefs—beliefs about how other voters will react. Before Japan’s October 2024 general election amid a funding scandal, we ran a pre-registered online survey experiment. To study this channel, we provided no new factual information about the scandal itself and instead reported a baseline statistic about perceived public intolerance of the underlying corruption: treated respondents learned that, in our baseline survey, the average respondent estimated that 67% of other respondents viewed the conduct as unacceptable. The message increased turnout by 6 percentage points and support for opposition challengers by 7 percentage points. Effects were sharply heterogeneous. Swing voters, especially those who initially overestimated how widely others would punish, became more likely to vote and back challengers. By contrast, ruling-party supporters, especially those who initially underestimated how widely others would punish, shifted toward the incumbent when they learned that intolerance of the corruption was higher than expected. More broadly, anti-corruption messages may affect voting not only by changing beliefs about wrongdoing, but also by changing beliefs about others’ reactions, helping explain why such campaigns often have mixed effects. |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:1289rr |
| By: | C. Monfardini; E. Pisanelli |
| Abstract: | Why do large gender inequalities in everyday life persist even as women strengthen their attachment to paid work? Existing evidence shows that women continue to do more unpaid work than men, but much of that evidence is based on individual diaries, says little about how inequality is jointly organized within couples, and rarely links daily time allocation to directly measured gender attitudes. This paper addresses that gap using the TIMES Observatory, an original survey of 1, 928 co-resident couples with at least one child younger than 11 in Emilia-Romagna or Campania. The data combine matched partner diaries for one weekday and one weekend day with rich socio-economic information and direct measures of gender norms. We document three main findings. First, women do substantially more unpaid work and spend more time with children, while men do more paid work and enjoy more leisure without children. Second, these asymmetries remain sizeable even among dual full-time couples, implying that stronger female labor-market attachment does not by itself equalize daily life. Third, more traditional gender attitudes - especially among men - are descriptively associated with lower male participation in childcare and domestic work and with wider gaps in discretionary leisure. The analysis is descriptive rather than causal, but it shows that gender inequality within couples is visible not only in the amount of work performed, but also in the distribution of time that is genuinely discretionary. |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2604.13896 |
| By: | Hailemariam, Abebe; Lukas, Erica; Mavisakalyan, Astghik; True, Jacqui |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of proximity to mining activity on men's adherence to traditional masculinity norms. Combining geocoded survey data with detailed spatial information on mining activity across 37 countries, we employ an instrumental variable strategy that exploits exogenous variation in geological mineral endowments and global commodity prices to address endogeneity concerns. We find that residing within 20 km of an active mine increases conformity to traditional masculinity norms approximately by 0.29 points on a four-point scale. The effects are concentrated in the violence and help avoidance dimensions, indicating that men living near active mines display greater tolerance of aggression and stronger resistance to help-seeking - traits closely aligned with the masculine culture of extractive workplaces. Heterogeneity analyses further show that these effects are strongest among lower-educated, unmarried, and older men. The results are robust to an alternative difference-in-differences identification strategy comparing areas near active versus inactive mines and to the use of an alternative measure of traditional gender role attitudes as the outcome variable. The analysis of mechanisms suggests that mining proximity increases male employment in the extractive sector while reducing female labor force participation in surrounding communities. These findings provide new insights into how extractive industries can shape and reinforce traditional masculinity norms in mining communities. |
| Keywords: | Mining, Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory, Gender Norms, Gender Equality, Sustainable Development Goal 5 |
| JEL: | J16 J24 O13 Q33 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1742 |
| By: | Mehrzad B. Baktash |
| Abstract: | Does working from home lead to loneliness? If yes, how and for whom? Using a quasi-natural experiment and individual fixed-effects, this study shows that work from home leads to increased worker loneliness. Teleworking not only increases overall loneliness, but it also affects each of the three dimensions of loneliness (feeling isolated, feeling left out, lacking companionship). Working from home increases irregular work hours and decreases satisfaction with leisure time, dwelling, and family life. Consequently, teleworkers feel lonelier. However, the effect is highly heterogeneous. Work from home particularly exacerbates the loneliness levels of employees who are extroverted, not married, without children, living in smaller households, working in the private sector, or residing in East Germany. Importantly, this detrimental effect is mainly driven by fully working remotely. Implications are discussed. |
| JEL: | I31 M5 I10 J81 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trr:wpaper:202604 |
| By: | Marcello D’Amato (University of Naples Federico II and CSEF, University Suor Orsola Benincasa); Francesco Flaviano Russo (University of Naples Federico II and CSEF) |
| Abstract: | We explore whether and how the similarity of pre-existing cultural traits between ethnic groups in the former colonies and colonizers contributes to explain the legacies of colonization. We find higher levels of income per capita, and a lower probability of a “Reversal of Fortunes”, in the territories where the local population had more similar oral traditions to the colonizers and where the dispersion of this folklore similarity was smaller. Exploring the mechanisms, we find that more oral tradition similarity, and less dispersion, are associated with more similar (de iure) constitutions established at independence, a higher frequency of a direct colonial rule, more conversions to Christianity and better education. |
| Keywords: | Colonial Relationship; Culture; Orality; Folklore Narratives; Historical Development |
| JEL: | J15 Z10 |
| Date: | 2026–03–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:774 |