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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2026–06–15
ten papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Gavresi, Despina; Irmen, Andreas; Litina, Anastasia |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies population aging as an important driver of populism using multilevel regression analysis on individuals from European countries between 2002 and 2019. Unlike individual aging, we focus on population- level demographic change measured by the old-age dependency ratio (OADR), i.e., the ratio of people aged 65 and over to those of working age. which captures the structural balance between older and economically active populations. Using data from nine rounds of the European Social Survey, we examine the relationship between population aging and populist attitudes, captured through voting for populist parties, political trust, and immigration attitudes. Our findings suggest that population aging is associated with declining electoral turnout, higher support for populist parties, lower trust in political institutions, and increased anti-immigrant sentiment. These effects appear across both younger and older voters, indicating that aging societies influence political preferences beyond individual aging. They may operate through mechanisms such as economic insecurity, cultural backlash, or shifts in collective societal priorities. |
| Keywords: | Aging, Populism, Trust, Immigrant Attitudes |
| JEL: | D72 J10 P00 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1761 |
| By: | Fetzer, Thiemo (University of Warwick & University of Bonn & CAGE & LSE & CEPR); Hensel, Lukas (Guanghua School of Management, Peking University); Roth, Christopher (University of Cologne); Zillessen, Hannah (KU Leuven) |
| Abstract: | Democracies can sustain disagreement over outcomes, but they are harder to sustain when citizens also perceive the governing norms of political contestation as settled along partisan lines. We study this problem in the context of Brexit and experimentally vary truthful information about how much Leave and Remain supporters agree with, and how uncertain they are about, the appropriateness of a second referendum. We find that uncertainty matters more than agreement: respondents become more willing to donate to and tweet for campaigns on either side of the referendum question when they learn that others, especially members of their own political camp, are more uncertain about the norm. The pattern is strongest for support for the norm position that is less popular within one's own political camp, while private beliefs about the norm and about Brexit itself barely move. These findings are more consistent with reduced conformity pressure and higher perceived returns to political expression than with private-belief updating, and they suggest that information about uncertainty can generate a meaningful form of depolarization in democratic engagement even when underlying outcome preferences remain largely unchanged. |
| Keywords: | Uncertainty, Norms, Social Image, Political Participation JEL Classification: D81, D83 P11 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:809 |
| By: | Bastien Chab´e-Ferret; Zainab Iftikhar; JungJae Park |
| Abstract: | This paper quantifies the contributions of social norms and economic incentives to the 350-hour annual gap in maternal labor supply between East and West Germany. Using a collective model of family formation and labor supply estimated on GSOEP data from 2000–2017, we find that the working-mother stigma accounts for 73 percent of the gap. Economic factors partially offset the norm: higher Western wages raise the opportunity cost of staying home, so equalizing wages in West to the levels in East would nearly double the gap. We show that standard policy reforms may actually widen the regional disparity, and that their effectiveness is conditional on the norm being present once removed, the same policies have negligible effects. |
| Keywords: | social norms, economic incentives, marriage, cohabitation, working mothers |
| JEL: | J01 J08 J12 J13 J22 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_753 |
| By: | Gavresi, Despina; Litina, Anastasia |
| 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: | Recessions, European Integration, EU Cohesion, Trust, EU Institutions, Euroscepticism |
| JEL: | D70 E60 F15 F36 H70 P16 Z10 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1760 |
| By: | Michalis Drouvelis; Nobuyuki Hanaki; Yuta Shimodaira |
| Abstract: | When are actors deterred from exploiting those over whom they hold unilateral power? We study this question in a laboratory experiment using a 2×2 design that extends the power-to-take game, varying whether the proposer can give as well as take, and whether the responder can destroy the proposer’s endowment at no cost (costless retaliation). Either variation alone leaves proposer behaviour unchanged, even though costless retaliation substantially increases punishment. Only when giving is feasible and retaliation is costless do proposers take significantly less, with average take rates falling from 60% to below 40%. Our findings show how institutional structures—through available action sets and punishment technologies—jointly determine whether exploitation is deterred. |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:1262rr |
| By: | Folco Panizza; Eugen Dimant; Erik O. Kimbrough; Alexander Vostroknutov |
| Abstract: | Shared norms and tolerance of dissent are cornerstones of democracy, the rule of law, and effective governance. Yet societies often harbor deep normative disagreements, raising a foundational question: how does normative pluralism -- the coexistence of divergent moral standards -- shape the enforcement of norms and the maintenance of social order? We design a new task to measure perceptions of pluralism and show in two pre-registered experiments that perceived normative pluralism softens moral judgment and reduces punishment. When individuals are induced to consider that others may think differently, their condemnation of transgressions is tempered, and they punish less. Thus, pluralism breeds tolerance. |
| Keywords: | norm elicitation, norm uncertainty, social norms, tight and loose norm |
| JEL: | C9 D01 D9 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12689 |
| By: | Goldstein, Daniel A. N. (University of Oslo); Wig, Tore |
| Abstract: | Do moral norms influence citizens' tolerance of anti-system behavior by politicians? Although moral norms are often invoked as guardrails, their measurement and causal influence in politics remain understudied. We theorize the link between moral norms, personal judgments, and attitudinal consequences and test our theory in a pre-registered survey experiment with financial incentives. Respondents faced moral trade-offs concerning personal scandals, political violence, corruption, and anti-democratic actions. Using a second-order approach to elicit beliefs about what others consider morally wrong, we find that norms against democratic violations are descriptively weaker than norms against scandal and corruption; both lag behind norms against violence. Causal evidence shows that norms primarily shift judgments when respondents face large discrepancies from their initial perceived norm and have strong conformity motives. However, this largely does not translate into attitudinal shifts. The findings shed light on the concept of moral norms and detail their consequences and limitations for politics. |
| Date: | 2026–06–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:nwrtz_v1 |
| By: | Hansen, Frederik Godt (Aarhus University); Halling, Aske (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | To access public services, citizens often navigate complex administrative requirements. These demands are introduced to ensure program integrity and maintain public support for welfare policies, yet they may create barriers for those in need. While prior studies on policy feedback and administrative burden show that burdensome encounters can reduce trust among welfare recipients, less is known about how the general public reacts to compliance demands. Stringent requirements may signal that programs are protected against fraud, potentially increasing perceptions of fairness and trust among non-recipients. We further hypothesize that compliance demands have positive effects on these outcomes when: 1) individuals are non-recipients rather than recipients of welfare services, and 2) the welfare recipient is perceived as undeserving. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a pre-registered vignette survey experiment in Denmark with a sample of the general public (N = 1, 624) and welfare recipients (N = 409). We find that stringent compliance demands increase perceptions of fairness but do not affect trust in government among the general public. We find no support for the moderation hypotheses. Our findings challenge prevailing understandings of administrative burden, showing that stricter requirements can enhance perceived fairness without undermining trust—regardless of welfare experience and deservingness perceptions. |
| Date: | 2026–05–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ktb2v_v1 |
| By: | Brosch, Hanna (Technical University of Munich); Grewenig, Elisabeth (KfW); Lergetporer, Philipp (Technical University of Munich); Werner, Katharina (Pforzheim University); Zeidler, Helen (Technical University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | Gender norms about parental labor supply are central to explaining persistent gender inequalities in the labor market, yet their causal determinants remain poorly understood. We examine whether people’s gender attitudes are driven by mothers’ and fathers’ earnings, which may shape views about the efficient allocation of paid work and care. In a large-scale representative vignette experiment in Germany (N > 10, 000), we randomly vary pre-childbirth earnings and measure whether respondents recommend that the mother (father) stay home with the child while the father (mother) works full-time. Without specifying earnings, 90% recommend that the mother stay home. This share remains high when we specify that the mother earns less (93%). When she earns more, the share drops sharply to 47%, yet nearly half of respondents still recommend that the mother stay home. This asymmetric response rejects a purely income-based explanation of gender norms. Thus, economic circumstances shape gender attitudes, but deeply rooted norms persist even when they conflict with financial incentives. |
| Keywords: | gender norms, labor supply, gender, survey experiment |
| JEL: | C90 D13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18661 |
| By: | Gorodnichenko, Yuriy (University of California, Berkeley); Sologoub, Ilona (VoxUkraine); Fedyk, Yuriy (AI for Good Foundation) |
| Abstract: | Using a representative sample of more than 7, 000 Ukrainians, we study how information treatments affect corruption perceptions and prosocial behavior. We document a large gap between perceived and experienced corruption: while most respondents view corruption as widespread and a major national problem, far fewer report direct exposure. Through a randomized controlled trial, we find that informing citizens about successful prosecutions raises perceived government willingness to fight corruption but does not reduce overall corruption perceptions. Communicating the scale of corruption alone generates no significant effects. Information treatments have little effect on hypothetical or actual donations and volunteering, suggesting a limited pass-through from changed beliefs to prosocial action. Thus, while information interventions can strengthen institutional credibility, they alone are not enough to tangibly improve civic engagement or reduce perceptions of corruption. |
| Keywords: | corruption, beliefs, RCT |
| JEL: | D73 O17 O52 P2 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18663 |