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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2026–09–07
eight papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Bachmann, Reinhard; Sydow, Jörg |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that there is an increasing need to trust not only organizations but whole interorganizational networks. That is, there is a strong and growing demand for building what we call 'network trust'. Differentiating between different forms of network governance, applying a practice-based perspective and using the well-known example of the StarAlliance, the paper demonstrates how network trust can emerge within a network, and how external stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers and regulators, can develop trust in a network as whole. Also, we will show that, in turn, network trust can help produce and reproduce trust in single members of a network. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research. |
| Keywords: | interorganizational relations, network governance, trust |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:342494 |
| By: | Cristina Cattaneo; Daniela Grieco; Nicola Lacetera; Mario Macis |
| Abstract: | We conducted a survey experiment with over 8, 000 participants in Germany, Hungary, and Italy to examine how information about the economic impact of immigration affects the support for more open immigration policies. Respondents who received projections showing higher future incomes under more open immigration policies reported greater support for these policies. The treatment also partly changed how prior attitudes affected policy preferences. Structural estimates suggest that majority support for immigration above current levels would require annual per-capita income gains of about 1.2% in Italy and 1.7% in Germany, and still larger or unattainable gains in Hungary. These increases are large relative to recent historical growth rates, suggesting that economic benefits alone are unlikely to generate vast support for more open immigration policies. |
| JEL: | C99 D02 D64 D91 F22 J15 P16 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35509 |
| By: | Chiara Livorno; Luca Tiberti |
| Abstract: | Weather shocks are frequently associated with heightened violence in agro-pastoral regions, yet the social processes linking weather-induced livelihood pressure to conflict remain insufficiently understood. This study examines whether spatial configurations of community lineages are associated with variation in community-level conflict responses to localized drought shocks. Across West Africa (1997–2022), we combine spatial panel data on drought exposure, conflict events, and the ancestral geography of lineage ties. We find that, conditional on ancestrally connected locations remaining climatically unaffected, drought exposure is associated with a 20-percentage-point lower predicted conflict incidence in clusters embedded in extended lineage networks relative to otherwise comparable clusters with more localized lineage structures. These patterns are consistent with a mechanism whereby social and institutional linkages formed across space condition access to nonlocal support and mobility-based adaptive capacity when climatic conditions deteriorate locally but not covariately. Complementary household panel data from Mali (2018–2021) show that households linked to spatially extended lineage networks experience smaller contractions in annual food expenditures and family remittance inflows following drought shocks. Overall, the findings highlight how historically constituted institutions connecting households across space are associated with differential responses to localized weather shocks in contexts where formal protection remains limited. |
| Keywords: | Extended kinship, informal risk-sharing, conflict, weather shocks, Western Africa. |
| JEL: | Q54 Z13 D74 N47 O13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2026_07.rdf |
| By: | Jerg Gutmann; Anna Lewczuk-Czerwi\'nska; Jacek Lewkowicz; Stefan Voigt |
| Abstract: | Constitutions as the formal foundation of a country's legal and political system have important economic and political effects. Yet, we still know little about why constitutions set effective constraints on politicians in some societies, while being largely disregarded in others. Here, we ask if national culture matters for constitutional compliance. We study a cross-section of 115 countries, making use of novel indicators of constitutional compliance. We find that societies with a more individualistic population exhibit higher levels of compliance. These results are robust and extend to instrumental variables estimations. They imply a novel transmission channel from cultural traits to long-term economic development: individualistic national culture increases the credibility of constitutional self-commitments. Our analysis also supports the more general idea that the effects of formal institutions depend on the informal institutional environment in which they are embedded. Regarding religion, our results are consistent with past research that attributes the lack of development in the modern Muslim world to deficient institutional quality. |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2608.23369 |
| By: | Brice Romuald Gueyap Kounga |
| Abstract: | Trust in local institutions matters for trade, public goods provision, conflict resolution, and democratic consolidation. Using individual data from rounds 6 and 7 of the Afrobarometer surveys, I document that respondents in former British colonies are substantially more likely to trust traditional leaders than respondents in former French colonies. Cross-country comparisons of this kind are confounded by unobserved heterogeneity in pre- and post-colonial histories. To make progress on identification, I focus on Cameroon, which contains regions colonized by Britain and regions colonized by France within a single modern state, and I exploit the former colonial partition line as a geographic discontinuity, comparing respondents who live close to either side of the anglophone-francophone boundary. The theoretical argument is that the two colonial powers differed systematically in how they treated customary authority: British indirect rule preserved the governance functions of chiefs, while French direct rule subordinated chiefs to the administration and assigned them its most coercive tasks, taxation and forced labor above all, and these divergent experiences shaped the legitimacy of chieftaincy in ways that persist through institutional continuity and socialization. Consistent with this argument, respondents on the formerly British side are 22 to 26 percentage points more likely to trust traditional leaders than their neighbors on the formerly French side, and they are far more likely to have contacted a traditional leader in the previous year. |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2608.17436 |
| By: | Stanislav Avdeev |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first evidence on the impact of exposure to international students on the long-term outcomes of native students. I combine unique survey and administrative data from the Netherlands covering one million students across three decades and employ an across-cohort design. I find that exposure to international students leads natives to (i) form social ties with non-natives, (ii) hold more positive attitudes towards migration and learning about other cultures, and (iii) seek opportunities abroad. Notably, I find precisely estimated zero effects on employment, income, entrepreneurship, and the share of international co-workers up to 25 years after university entry. |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2607.28842 |
| By: | Yuta Kido; Yohsuke Ohtsubo |
| Abstract: | Reputation and institutional certification are the two main trust mechanisms under information asymmetry, yet their interaction remains poorly understood. We analyze nearly one million fixed-price eBay listings of Pokemon cards, where sellers choose among three signals: third-party grading (institutional certification), self-grading (a self-claimed condition description), or no signal. We show that self-grading and third-party grading dominate distinct regions of the reputation-value space, with the self-grading region widening as reputation rises. Reputation also amplifies the price premium of self-grading but not that of third-party grading. We develop a signaling game in which a false self-claim carries an ex-post cost proportional to reputation, whereas certification carries an ex-ante cost independent of reputation. These costs split the reputation-value space into equilibrium regimes that explain both patterns. The two mechanisms are therefore substitutes within a transaction yet complements across the market, replacing the reputation-versus-institution dichotomy with a regime structure set by reputation and value. |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2608.17312 |
| By: | Gabriel Bontemps; Abhishek Banerjee |
| Abstract: | Social interaction can improve collective learning but also amplify early mistakes. We study this tension when the credibility of social information is generated by the sender's own decision process rather than fixed ex ante. Reinforcement-learning agents make binary choices through a drift--diffusion process that jointly determines choice, decision time, and confidence; decision confidence then becomes social credibility by weighting anticipatory influence and retrospective social learning. Under balanced community exposure, the anticipatory field admits an exact quotient representation. Its local Jacobian is a scalar decision-sensitivity term multiplying the community-coupling matrix, which yields a common-mode amplification threshold and an analytical role for cross-community permeability in damping relative community differences. Monte Carlo experiments show the corresponding non-monotone performance pattern: moderate transmission accelerates correction, whereas strong transmission can lock populations into wrong consensus; low permeability instead sustains disagreement. Ablations reveal a dual role for confidence: credibility-sensitive transmission amplifies social error, while confidence-dependent private learning stabilises it. The model yields testable predictions linking sender confidence to receiver behaviour conditional on accuracy. |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2608.24851 |