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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2026–10–19
five papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Danilo Cavapozzi; Marco Francesconi; Cheti Nicoletti |
| Abstract: | Women perform most of the housework despite substantial convergence in labor market outcomes. We develop and estimate a semi-structural model of household housework decisions that combines randomized vignette experiments with an epidemiological identification strategy to estimate the contributions of economic utility and social norms. Equal sharing of housework yields higher economic utility for both men and women, while households use domestic work to offset differences in labor market involvement. Yet women continue to perform a disproportionate share of housework, largely because of social norms. Exposure to more egalitarian gender norms significantly increases the likelihood of more balanced housework allocations. |
| Keywords: | Intrahousehold allocation of chores, Labor supply, Vignettes, Gender role norms, Gender gaps |
| JEL: | C25 C26 D13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26227 |
| By: | Jason Shachat (Center for Intelligence Economic Science, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and Chapman University); J. Todd Swarthout (Department of Economics, Georgia State University); Yun Wang (School of Economics, Renmin University of China) |
| Abstract: | We examine how competitive allocation of scarce participation rights shapes behavior in a Berg-style trust game. Trustor and trustee roles are allocated through multi-unit uniform-price English auctions with varying scarcity, alongside a matched-fee random-assignment control treatment. Positive transfers and returns persist, but behavior lies near the low-trust, low-reciprocity end of comparable benchmarks. Tighter scarcity accelerates the decline in trustor transfers, while trustee returns show no monotonic pattern. Scarcity strongly raises auction prices without comparably raising participants’ gross trust-game earnings, thereby lowering net earnings. Exit bids adjust to past game profitability, indicating adaptive learning about the value of participation. |
| Keywords: | Trust Game; trust game; Scarcity; Market Allocation; Participation Rights |
| JEL: | C91 D82 D83 D84 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:26-12 |
| By: | Ulugbek Aminjonov (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU), Trier University); Olivier Bargain (Bordeaux University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how combinations of ancestral cultural norms are associated with women’s empowerment across ethnic groups worldwide. Linking Demographic and Health Surveys to ancestral traits from the Ethnographic Atlas, we develop a hybrid supervised– unsupervised approach combining Partial Least Squares with k-means clustering to identify multidimensional normative configurations. We identify five probabilistic regimes spanning the empowerment gradient. Severe disempowerment is associated with an accumulation of restrictive norms, while religious norms and women’s role in agriculture distinguish higherempowerment environments within otherwise broadly patriarchal configurations. Further up the gradient, contrasts concern first hierarchical social institutions, then kinship structures and the loosening of patriarchal arrangements, before less traditional, more gender-neutral configurations become widespread at the highest levels of empowerment. The salience of norms varies with the configurations in which they are embedded, revealing strongly non-monotonic patterns. These findings remain robust to accounting for contemporary socioeconomic conditions and to a range of sensitivity checks. Overall, the analysis provides a global mapping of ancestral normative environments associated with women’s agency and helps identify the configurations most closely related to severe intrahousehold inequality. |
| Keywords: | women’s empowerment, ancestral norms, cultural persistence, kinship systems, machine learning, gender inequality, DHS, Ethnographic Atlas |
| JEL: | J16 O15 Z13 C38 D13 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:dpaper:202607 |
| By: | Quynh Nga Do; Pushkar Maitra; Astghik Mavisakalyan |
| Abstract: | Civic mobilization is a common societal response to gender-based violence, but whether it actually changes sexual offending is largely unknown. We exploit geographic variation in exposure to the March 4 Justice (M4J) movement — a nationally coordinated series of protests against gender-based violence held across Australia on 15th March 2021 — as a natural experiment, using a difference-in-differences design. We find that areas hosting the protests experienced a 16 to 21 per cent reduction in recorded sexual assaults over the six to twelve months following the movement, with no significant effects across six other crime categories. This suggests a mechanism specific to sexual violence rather than general deterrence. These effects are larger in locations closer to protest activity and at sites with sizable crowds compared to smaller ones. Attitudinal data from the National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey reveal significant shifts in men’s attitudes: greater rejection of rape myths, increased survivor credibility, and reduced endorsement of patriarchal norms, with these shifts concentrated among younger and more educated men. The reductions in sexual assault are concentrated in male-represented areas, where the movement’s normative signal was more novel, and nationwide, we find suggestive evidence of a modest rise in female electoral support in 2022 relative to 2019. Together, these findings suggest that civic mobilization can reduce violence through the internalization of norms. |
| Keywords: | Social Movements, Sexual Assaults, Difference-in-Differences, Civic Mo- bilization, Protests, Norm Change, Natural Experiment, Australia |
| JEL: | C23 D74 D83 D91 J16 K42 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026–10–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:paper_1791430433518_552 |
| By: | Leonardo Bursztyn; Rafael Jiménez-Durán; Aaron Leonard; Filip Milojević; Christopher Roth |
| Abstract: | Several countries are adopting social media bans for teenagers, yet early evidence suggests limited adherence to the age-based restrictions. Such bans ask platforms to remove profitable customers and teens to give up access to their online social networks. We study an alternative regulatory regime in which platforms remain liable for teens on the adult tier but may offer a safe tier that removes restricted features, such as algorithmic feeds, while preserving interactions with their relevant network. Provision of the safe tier and enforcement are complementary: teens can adhere without giving up access to their network, and platforms can retain displaced adult-tier users as lower-margin customers. This policy design makes the teen decision to avoid the adult tier less dependent on peer dynamics and increases teen welfare for a relevant range of regulatory penalties. |
| JEL: | D18 D62 L51 L86 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35870 |