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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2026–11–09
thirteen papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Sultan Mehmood; Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak |
| Abstract: | We link high-frequency geocoded protest data during Bangladesh’s 2024 Monsoon Revolution, Facebook measures of protest activity and social connectivity, university enrollment and demographics to establish: (1) student-linked protests precede off-campus mobilization; (2) student concentration predicts both on- and off-campus protest, while non-student youth, educated adults, urbanization, and locations of “placebo” universities authorized but not yet operating do not; and (3) social connectivity to student protest locations predicts off-campus diffusion one week later. Universities appear to incubate mass uprising by making dissent visible, coordinated, and capable of spreading beyond campus. Such patterns are also evident in U.S. Vietnam War protests and in global data. That universities facilitate broader political mobilization can explain why governments often seek to restrict student activism. |
| JEL: | D74 I23 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35983 |
| By: | Jozwik, Jan (School of Economics, University of Nottingham Ningbo China); Lane, Tom (Newcastle University Business School); Song, Lina (Nottingham University Business School); Zhang, Fan (Independent researcher) |
| Abstract: | Building on evidence that group cohesion drives economic efficiency, we hypothesise income inequality influences efficiency by altering cohesion, with the direction depending on inequality type. Using a novel experimental design with extensive group interactions and a state-of-the-art group cohesion measure, we confirm stronger cohesion is associated with more efficient interactions. Group cohesion is strengthened by inequality between groups, a mechanism previously overlooked. Furthermore, unexpectedly, inequalities within groups do not hinder cohesion. These results suggest interpersonal relationships display resilience to economic disparities, challenging the prevailing argument that inequality must harm cohesion, and undermining a pathway through which it could reduce efficiency. |
| Keywords: | economic inequality, group cohesion, social identity, cooperation, coordination, public goods, weak-link game, economic experiment |
| JEL: | C99 D31 D64 D91 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nwc:wpaper:2026-02 |
| By: | Noah Star; Simon D. Angus |
| Abstract: | Our research asks whether climate-fuelled disasters affect local social cohesion in regional Victoria, introducing a new approach to measuring social cohesion as an emergent network property at high frequency. Through Natural Language Processing, we conduct a textual analysis of Victorian regional newspapers to construct a novel Social Cohesion Network Index using media-reported organisation-to-organisation ties. This novel data set is reported at the Statistical Area Level 4 on a weekly basis, becoming the dependent variable in a stacked event study design. Within this framework, treatment is defined by a region having experienced an extreme bushfire or flood, with a stacked approach necessary given staggered treatment. We find evidence to support that a natural disaster increases our new measure of social cohesion, which is a result that is heterogeneous by disaster type. Our findings imply that the group-level network of Victorian locales becomes more structurally cohesive in response to a bushfire, whereas the impact of a flood is less precisely estimated. Beyond the actual coefficients, this empirical application reflects our broader contribution to measuring social cohesion as an emergent network property, complementing existing survey-based approaches and adding to the growing urgency to better measure democratic resilience in Australia. |
| Keywords: | Social Cohesion, Climate-Fuelled Disasters, Natural Language Processing |
| JEL: | C45 F52 Q54 |
| Date: | 2026–11–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajr:sodwps:paper_1793762534474_668 |
| By: | Faisal Quaiyyum |
| Abstract: | When can local household disturbances move credit prices? I develop a financially weighted propagation operator on the social network. In a conditional household-intermediary equilibrium, its projection determines the household-demand component of the excess bond premium. Because responses decay at different rates across network patterns and channels, a location's relative financial importance generically changes with the horizon, so no single centrality measure summarizes exposure across horizons. Household measurements recover this projection exactly when they span independently measured demand sensitivities. Empirically, social exposure to storm-damaged counties is negatively associated with spending weeks later in counties outside the recorded footprints. In simulations on the observed network under the model's diffusion law, the operator predicts the propagated credit-premium component of held-out storms with about 30 percent less error than direct social exposure. |
| Date: | 2026–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2611.01540 |
| By: | Quynh Nga Do; Maitra, Pushkar; Mavisakalyan, Astghik |
| 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 Mobilization, Protests, Norm Change, Natural Experiment, Australia |
| JEL: | C23 D74 D83 D91 J16 K42 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1834 |
| By: | Murphy, Richard; Telhaj, Shqiponja |
| Abstract: | This paper studies whether governments can change social norms that constrain women's education and work, and through which mechanism. Albania's 1967 religion ban, which created the world's first atheist state, provides an extreme natural experiment: religious practice was outlawed nationwide, but a 1948 classification of historic monuments determined which religious buildings remained standing. We find larger increases in female employment and schooling where no monument survived. The public visibility of the old religious order appears to be the mechanism: effects are largest where no monument remained, smaller with rural-only monuments, and smallest with urban monuments; they also decline as monument count rises, regardless of denomination. We establish how social norms can outlive formal authority. |
| Keywords: | social norms;gender;religion;female employment;education |
| JEL: | Z13 J16 Z12 N34 |
| Date: | 2026–10–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:141791 |
| By: | Jirjahn, Uwe |
| Abstract: | The issue of trust and cooperation in employment relations is a complex one as multiple actors are involved. The issue not only refers to the vertical relationship between workforce and management, but also to horizontal relationships among workers. Moreover, worker representation through unions or works councils often plays a role in employment relations. This brings a series of further important aspects to the issue - the quality of the relationship between a worker representation body and management, the impact of worker representation on the quality of worker-management relationships, the quality of the relationship between workers and their representation body, and the impact of worker representation on the quality of relationships among workers. This chapter provides a review of the econometric evidence on the determinants, outcomes and dynamics. Econometric research shows that trustful and cooperative employment relations not only have microeconomic consequences at the individual or firm level. They also have macroeconomic implications for the performance of labor markets. |
| Keywords: | Cooperative Employment Relations, Trustful Employment Relations, Trajectory of Trust and Cooperation, Unions, Works Councils, Worker Representation |
| JEL: | D90 J50 J51 J53 M54 M55 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1859 |
| By: | Hattori, Keisuke; Yamada, Mai |
| Abstract: | Helping colleagues builds up workplace relationships which have both productive and private benefits, at the cost of time that could otherwise be spent on one's own work. We model this trade-off to examine how the private value of workplace relationships affects reward design, team size, and leadership. Under individual rewards, helping is insufficient when the private value of relationships is low and excessive when it is high. More productive relationships can lead members to spend too much time helping, reducing team output even under an optimal reward scheme. When individual and team rewards are combined, the optimal weight on team performance is lower in teams whose members place greater private value on relationships, and higher in teams with greater common ability. Under individual rewards, expanding a team can curb excessive helping by weakening its mutual reinforcement, but also reduces the productive benefits of relationships. The optimal team size balances these effects and is larger when members place a higher private value on relationships. By committing to an effort allocation first, the leader induces more helping from the follower and strengthens social ties. This form of leadership can improve output when relationships are insufficiently developed, but lowers output when relationship formation is already at or beyond the output-maximizing level. Both members nevertheless gain in utility. |
| Keywords: | Social relationships, Helping, Team production, Incentive design, Effort allocation, Strategic complementarity |
| JEL: | D23 M52 M54 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:344455 |
| By: | Andrew Harkins (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a model of opinion dynamics in networks where message content can be differentiated by target. In contrast to previous approaches, this model studies the evolution of message content on the edges of the graph, rather than focusing on how beliefs evolve at nodes. This framework is then used to explore how opinion conformity, the act of tailoring one’s stated opinion to the recipient, can impact convergence speed and polarization. Pairwise opinion conformity slows convergence to consensus, whereas anticonformity can lead to faster asymptotic convergence. It is also shown that group conformity can lead to persistent disagreement, even in a connected graph, providing a new perspective on the causes of opinion polarization within social networks. |
| Keywords: | Opinion dynamics; social networks; conformity; polarization; social learning JEL codes: D85; D83 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1637 |
| By: | Wang, Han; Lee, Neil |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the long run association between business networks and entrepreneurship and regional development in China. We focus on chambers of commerce, bodies which facilitated networking between businesses until private firms were banned by Mao. Our results suggest that the pre-Mao chamber system is associated with long-lasting patterns of business creation and economic output in China, with this influence surviving until the post-1978 return of the market economy. The associations are strongest in the early reform period but weaken over time. We show evidence that historic chambers density is correlated with later social capital, despite major political change. |
| Keywords: | networks;chamber of commerce;entrepreneurship;economic development |
| JEL: | D85 N85 R11 |
| Date: | 2026–10–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:141318 |
| By: | Abbos, Mirzayev; Egamberdiev; Bekhzod |
| Abstract: | This study examines the relationship between e-government service use and government trust in seven countries across Central Asia and the South Caucasus. We use Life in Transition Survey IV data from 6, 501 respondents collected in 2022–2023. E-government use combines five online public-service activities, while government trust combines trust in the cabinet of ministers, regional government and local government. Survey-weighted two-stage least squares models use transactional Internet use as an instrument and include individual controls, communicative Internet use and country fixed effects, with standard errors clustered by primary sampling unit. Under the instrument assumptions, a one-unit increase in the standardized e-government score is associated with 0.109 standard deviations higher trust in the baseline model and 0.138 after adding digital skills and mobile Internet use. Both estimates are significant at the 5% level. A supplementary instrumental variable structural equation model also finds a positive relationship when trust is treated as a latent variable. No country estimate is significant after correction for multiple testing. The pooled estimate loses significance at the 10% level when either Armenia or Uzbekistan is excluded and weakens when the instrument is allowed a positive direct relationship with trust. The study provides comparative evidence linking online public-service use to government trust, while showing that the pooled finding is sensitive to country composition and instrument validity. |
| Keywords: | E-government use, Government trust, Transactional Internet use, Digital skills, Instrumental variables, Central Asia, South Caucasus |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:344302 |
| By: | Sadullayev, Nodirbek; Egamberdiev, Bekhzod |
| Abstract: | This study examines the relationship between social capital and life satisfaction across seven post Soviet countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus using data from LiTS IV. Social capital is measured through institutional trust, interpersonal trust, and social norms. The empirical analysis combines Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Structural Equation Modelling(SEM), Latent Profile Analysis(LPA), and nearest-neighbour matching. The results reveal substantial cross-country heterogeneity in both the structure of social capital and its association with life satisfaction. Positive relationships are observed in several countries, while the contribution of individual social capital dimensions differs across national contexts. |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:344309 |
| By: | Rossouw, Stephanie; Greyling, Talita |
| Abstract: | Social capital is widely recognised as a determinant of subjective well-being (SWB), yet most studies rely on a narrow set of indicators. Typically, the association between generalised trust and civic participation and a single evaluative well-being measure is explored, mainly in Western countries. Using Waves 1 and 2 data from the Global Flourishing Study, we test whether these conventional social capital indicators are the most important predictors for two different evaluative well-being measures: life satisfaction and the Cantril ladder. Additionally, we use economic measures as a benchmark, given that traditionally it has been among the principal indicators and most extensively discussed correlates of SWB, to compare the predictive importance of three social capital dimensions or blocks across measures and development contexts, i.e., Western countries and the Global South. We employ XGBoost models and SHAP values, normalised for cross-sample differences in the dispersion of the outcome variables, to rank predictors. A sequential Pseudo-R² decomposition is used as a scale-free robustness validation, and panel fixed-effects models with standardised coefficients are used to assess which relationships survive within-person identification. We find that the conventional social capital indicators, civic engagement and general trust, used predominantly in the literature, perform poorly. The two variables add little to both SWB measures across all samples (Western and Global South) and, in several specifications, worsen out-of-sample prediction. Among the social capital blocks (dimensions), belonging, driven by satisfaction with close relationships, is the only dimension that exceeds economic variables, and it does so only for life satisfaction, not for the Cantril ladder. In the Global South, material challenges have the largest standardised within-person association with life satisfaction (ß = -0.213) and exceed all social capital variables. In Western countries, satisfaction with relationships dominates (ß = 0.204). The Pseudo-R² decomposition shows the same broad block-level pattern, and the fixed-effects estimates further indicate that the main relationships are also evident within persons over time. Our findings indicate that conclusions about the importance of social capital depend on which dimension (and indicators) of social capital is measured, which SWB outcome is used, and in which region the analysis is conducted. |
| Keywords: | social capital, life satisfaction, Cantril ladder, XGBoost, SHAP, panel fixed effects, Global Flourishing Study |
| JEL: | C45 D91 I31 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1833 |