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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2026–09–28
eleven papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Brad Cannon; David Hirshleifer; Joshua Thornton |
| Abstract: | Using Facebook friendship data, we study how three aspects of social capital shape innovative activity. We find that the most important aspect of social capital in explaining innovation is Economic Connectedness (EC)--the share of high-income friendships. One standard deviation greater EC is associated with 97% more patents per capita among patenting ZIP Codes and 45% more breakthrough patents per capita among ZIP Codes with breakthrough patents. Reverse-causality tests, a within-inventor relocation design, and a quasi-experiment using fracking-driven economic shocks to non-local friends support a causal interpretation. Mechanism tests provide evidence consistent with a financing channel. |
| JEL: | D14 D25 D83 D85 D9 G32 G41 G51 O16 O3 O33 O35 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35732 |
| By: | Guglielmo Barone; Giulia Romani |
| Abstract: | Declining trust in supranational institutions may undermine the effective management of global challenges requiring cross-border coordination. We estimate the causal effect of supranational financial assistance following major adverse shocks on citizens' trust in supranational institutions. Our empirical setting is the European Union (EU), where the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) - the EU's main instrument for post-disaster support - provides a uniquely suitable empirical setting for identifying the political effects of supranational assistance following major natural disasters. Identification relies on plausibly exogenous variation in exposure to EUSF assistance together with the "impressionable years" hypothesis. Combining individual-level survey data with geocoded information on natural disasters and EUSF interventions over the 2002-2018 period, we find that exposure to EUSF assistance generates a sizable increase in confidence in the EU that remains detectable several years after the intervention. The effect is economically meaningful and substantially stronger in regions characterized by lower-quality local governance and among more risk-averse individuals, consistent with institutional substitution and insurance mechanisms. Finally, using regional macroeconomic data, we provide supporting evidence that EUSF interventions mitigate the economic downturns associated with natural disasters, suggesting that supranational assistance in moments of distress can generate both economic and political returns. |
| JEL: | D91 H11 H84 I38 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1231 |
| By: | Docquier, Frédéric (LISER); Dominici, Alice (IMT Lucca); Fernández, Martín (LISER); Mariani, Fabio (Université catholique de Louvain) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a historical quasi-natural experiment to provide causal evidence on how networks and diversity affect migrants' economic outcomes in a rural setting. Between 1932 and 1941, Italy's Fascist government relocated about 4, 000 families to the Pontine Marshes, a formerly malarial, sparsely inhabited area undergoing massive reclamation. Settlers from different provinces were quasi-randomly assigned to plots, providing plausibly exogenous variation in neighborhood composition. Using data on the universe of settlers, we find that larger common-origin networks significantly increase the likelihood of long-term settlement and land purchase. Greater neighborhood diversity worsens economic performance on average, largely by reducing network externalities, but benefits settlers who lack common-origin ties. Network effects operate, at least partly, through higher productivity, with no evidence of knowledge transmission. Instead, our results point to cooperation and mutual support as the main channel. Effects are concentrated among families under the greatest strain and those from origins historically more reliant on bonding social capital. Network effects are also stronger when neighbors arrive at the same time and live nearby. |
| Keywords: | migration, networks, diversity, productivity, agriculture |
| JEL: | D85 J24 J61 N54 O13 O15 O40 R23 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18931 |
| By: | Tomasz Piskorski; Amit Seru; Jian Zhang; Chun Zhao |
| Abstract: | We study whether pro-integrity social norms can substitute for formal enforcement in deterring misconduct by public officials. Singapore, widely regarded as one of the world’s least corrupt countries, provides a sharp setting to examine whether decades of successful anti-corruption enforcement can produce self-sustaining norms. Using universe-level housing transactions, we identify informed home purchases by civil servants around expansions of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system. Relative to a matched uninformed control, civil servants disproportionately purchase homes near planned—but not yet publicly announced—stations, with the effect concentrated one to two years before public announcements. The behavior is concentrated among mid-level officials and agencies connected to rail planning, generates meaningful private gains, and also appears among relatives, consistent with information leakage. Stronger formal enforcement substantially reduces both direct and indirect misconduct. We combine the transaction evidence with independent survey measures of perceived corruption, public trust, and pro-integrity norms and develop a dynamic model in which norms are persistent but fragile, enforcement both directly deters misconduct and indirectly sustains norms, and policymakers learn about the persistence of norms from noisy integrity signals. Observed pre-tightening misconduct, deterioration in survey-based integrity measures, and the subsequent decline in misconduct following stronger enforcement are more consistent with policymakers learning that norms have limited persistence than with a response to transitory noise. The findings suggest that even in high-integrity societies, social norms may not be sufficiently self-sustaining to maintain a low-corruption equilibrium without continued formal enforcement. |
| JEL: | E59 G14 G18 K29 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35756 |
| By: | Fischer, Alexander (Trivago, Germany); Gorshkov, Andrei (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Sandoy, Tróndur M. (University of Faroe Islands, Faroe Islands); Walldorf, Jeanette (Ministry of Children and Education, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | Do alumni ties preserve economic advantage? Linking random tutorial-group assignments at a Danish business school to administrative career data, we show that students align careers more with group peers than others in the same cohort, particularly through shared workplaces. These effects are especially pronounced among students from the wealthiest families and concentrated in top-paying firms. More exposure to affluent peers raises earnings, access to top-paying jobs, and increases the probability of reaching the top income ranks for similarly privileged students, while not for others. Job transitions to group peers point to gains from peer-connected moves, again concentrated among wealthier students. |
| Keywords: | Social connections; Peer effects; Elite university; Social mobility |
| JEL: | I24 I26 J62 |
| Date: | 2026–09–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2026_017 |
| By: | Gertsberg, Marina (University of Melbourne); Yimfor, Emmanuel (Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | Professionals invest heavily in gaining brief access to gatekeepers, yet we know little about whether such encounters affect career outcomes. We ask whether an editor's seminar visit raises junior scholars' chances of publishing in that editor's journal. We link seminar visits at top-100 U.S. finance departments to junior faculty publication histories and editorial rosters of leading economics and finance journals. Because departments select whom to invite and editors choose where to visit, we exploit seminar rotation norms: departments typically wait several years before re-inviting a speaker, generating predictable variation in the timing of editor visits. Effects are close to zero at two-, three-, and four-year horizons. We rule out increases of 50 percent or more relative to baseline at every horizon, and of 30 percent or more after three and four years. Point estimates are more positive for women, scholars at lower-ranked schools, editors who visit fewer schools, and pairs with greater research overlap, suggesting information or access benefits. We find no persistent gains outside the editor's journal. A single editor visit yields no large average publication gain, though smaller gains where access is scarce remain possible. |
| Keywords: | professional networks, academic publishing, editorial favoritism, personal connections, causal inference |
| JEL: | A11 A14 D83 L82 I23 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18922 |
| By: | Adriano Amati (ETH Zürich); Monica Billio (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice); Marco Di Cataldo (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice; London School of Economics); Giovanni Mastrobuoni (Collegio Carlo Alberto) |
| Abstract: | Learned representations have transformed the measurement of unstructured data in economics. We extend it to relational data, showing that Temporal Graph Networks encode economically meaningful behavior in dynamic corporate ownership networks. Using a high-resolution Italian ownership graph anchored on 5, 700 judicially confiscated firms, we train a TGN that is never supervised on confiscation to produce time-varying firm embeddings, and we summarize their geometry with an Infiltration Proximity Index (IPI): a real-time measure of how densely a firm’s latent neighborhood is populated by firms whose confiscation is already legally known. We validate the index along three dimensions. It forecasts confiscation out of sample up to four years ahead, with a higher area under the ROC curve than the full set of firm-level financial variables at every horizon and for every classifier, and with far fewer missed confiscations at the cost of flagging more firms that are never confiscated; the geometry it summarizes places firms confiscated only later closer to firms already confiscated at the time of measurement; and it responds coherently to local changes in ownership. We then use the index to date firms’ transitions into a high-risk regime in a staggered difference-in-differences design. Around the dated transition, firms display sharp scale expansion, rising liabilities and receivables, cost reallocation, and persistent illiquidity, with only temporary profit gains, patterns consistent with firms operating as conduits for financial flows rather than as profit maximizers. |
| Keywords: | corporate network, organized crime, infiltration, graph neural networks, embeddings |
| JEL: | C45 C55 D85 L1 K42 L25 G32 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2026:24 |
| By: | Dana Sisak (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Philipp Denter (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | We study how social image concerns shape information sharing among peers. Individuals receive a signal about a binary state with an observable direction and a veracity that can be learned only through costly verification, which depends on type. We analyze two motives: a desire to appear competent and a desire to signal one's worldview. For each, we characterize equilibrium sharing, derive implications for the relative diffusion of true versus false news, and compare welfare. The two motives can both generate greater sharing of false than factual news but imply distinct, testable patterns which we relate to existing empirical evidence. |
| Keywords: | P2P Information Sharing, Social Image, Signaling, Fake News |
| JEL: | D72 D83 |
| Date: | 2026–09–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20260072 |
| By: | Hilweg-Waldeck, Michael; Hild, Paul Ergün |
| Abstract: | Many donors leave tax benefits unclaimed even when doing so requires minimal effort and yields meaningful financial rewards. Findings from our representative survey point to confusion about how to deduct donations and to misperceived social norms about the moral appropriateness of doing so as the main drivers of this gap. We study how to tackle these two sources of the deduction gap by providing concise information on how to deduct donations and a one-sentence norm cue in an online experiment (n = 483), a door-to-door field experiment with address-level randomization (n = 6, 728), and a radio-based campaign spanning two Austrian federal states. We find that almost all donors deduct when donating through the anonymous online tool. By contrast, during face-to-face fundraising, where social-image concerns are salient, fewer than 1 in 100 donors choose to do so. Across settings, information on how to deduct donations alone leaves deduction behavior unchanged, whereas combining this information with the norm cue increases take-up in the door-to-door setting. Our findings show that financial incentives can falter when clashing with misperceived norms in social settings, unless paired with campaigns that reshape those norms. |
| Keywords: | social image, tax incentives, charitable giving |
| JEL: | C93 D64 D91 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:343567 |
| By: | Fan, Yibin; Wang, Hai (Nanyang Technological University) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the motivations and political correlates of large-scale platform migration in a transnational context. While prior research has emphasized social and technological drivers, the political significance of migration remains underexplored. Building on theories of alternative political expression, political and media trust, and political efficacy, this study conceptualizes platform migration as an alternative political expression. Using an online survey of a group of users with sustained adoption of RedNote, we analyze the case of “TikTok refugees, ” examining five motivational mechanisms – social influence, platform-use orientation, political expression, cultural openness, and collective identity frames – and a series of political characteristics with migration. The results show that lower political and media trust, lower external efficacy, and higher internal efficacy are significantly associated with affective and perceptual dimensions of migration. In addition, political expression and cultural openness emerge as the strongest motivators, while well-recognized motivations of social influence and platform-use orientation do not show statistically significant correlation. Taken together, the findings highlight platform migration as a complex, multidimensional behavior situated at the intersection of technological change and (geo)political dynamics. |
| Date: | 2026–07–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ra6d8_v1 |
| By: | Anouck Butraud-Assathian (PcEn - Chaire Pluralisme culturel et Ethique du numérique (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Joëlle Farchy (PcEn - Chaire Pluralisme culturel et Ethique du numérique (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)); Léna Laqueyrerie (PcEn - Chaire Pluralisme culturel et Ethique du numérique (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | The article examines the shift in the digital cultural ecosystem triggered by the widespread adoption of Generative AI. Historically, the platformization of cultural industries established an attention economy, where recommendation algorithms were essential for guiding users through overwhelming content catalogs. However, the recent influx of synthetic media has disrupted the dynamic, creating a synthetic tsunami that threatens cultural diversity, undermines user trust, and jeopardizes the livelihoods of human creators. Furthermore, this unchecked proliferation risks model degeneration for the AI systems themselves. To mitigate these economic and social tensions, Digital Service Providers are evolving their algorithmic policies. We analyze how platforms handle AI detection tools, transparent labeling, and adjusted recommendation guidelines to filter and distinguish human creations from automated content. Ultimately, this paper argues that platforms transition from a pure attention economy to a trust economy, actively protecting and highlighting human-made works to preserve the integrity and sustainability of the cultural value chain. |
| Keywords: | trust economy, digitization, recommender systems, GenAI, cultural industries, attention economy |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-05751501 |