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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2025–03–31
four papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Åslund, Olof (Uppsala University, Uppsala Center for Labor Studies (UCLS), the Institute for Evaluation of Labor Market and Education Policy (IFAU), IZA, CReAM); Karimi, Arizo (Uppsala University, UCLS, IFAU); Sundberg, Anton (Uppsala University, UCLS, IFAU) |
| Abstract: | We present evidence that shared institutional and economic contexts may be at least as im portant as culturally rooted gender equality norms for the size of the motherhood penalty. Our study covers child migrants and children of immigrants in Sweden, and while the results point to a moderate but statistically robust negative association between source country gender equality and the labor market impact of motherhood, the overall picture is more one of similarity across highly diverse groups. All groups of mothers exhibit qual itatively comparable labor market trajectories following first childbirth, but penalties are somewhat greater among those descending from the most gender unequal societies. |
| Keywords: | Motherhood penalty; Cultural norms; Earnings inequality; |
| JEL: | J13 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–02–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2025_001 |
| By: | Maria Laura Alzua (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP & CONICET & PEP); Juan Camilo Cardenas (Universidad de los Andes); Habiba Djebbari (3Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, EHESS, Central Marseille, IRD, AMSE, Marseille, France) |
| Abstract: | Experts argue that the adoption of healthy sanitation practices, such as hand washing and latrine use, requires focusing on the entire community rather than individual behaviors. According to this view, one limiting factor in ending open defecation lies in the capacity of the community to collectively act toward this goal. Each member of a community bears the private cost of contributing by washing hands and using latrines, but the benefits through better health outcomes depend on whether other community members also opt out of open defecation. We rely on a community-based intervention carried out in Mali as an illustrative example (Community-Led Total Sanitation or CLTS). Using a series of experiments conducted in 121 villages and designed to measure the willingness of community members to contribute to a local public good, we investigate the process of participation in a collective action problem setting. Our focus is on two types of activities: (1) gathering of community members to encourage public discussion of the collective action problem, and (2) facilitation by a community champion of the adoption of individual actions to attain the socially preferred outcome. In games, communication helps raise public good provision, and both open discussion and facilitated ones have the same impact. When a community member facilitates a discussion after an open discussion session, public good contributions increase, but there are no gains from opening up the discussion after a facilitated session. Community members who choose to contribute in the no-communication treatment are not better facilitators than those who choose not to contribute. |
| JEL: | H41 O12 C93 Q56 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0347 |
| By: | Amélie Allegre (School of Economics, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom); Oana Borcan (School of Economics, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom); Christa Brunnschweiler (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | We examine colonial-era primary education as a determinant of modern-day attainment and gender disparities in education. We construct a novel dataset from the French Protectorate in Morocco, combining archival data on colonial school locations in 1931 and 1954 with the most recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data in arbitrary grids. We analyse the influence of colonial schools on the probability of attaining primary and secondary education in 2004. Overall, schools dedicated to Moroccans in 1931 exhibit a persistent positive impact on education outcomes, but only in the absence of nearby schools reserved for Europeans. Stark gender gaps in access during the Protectorate were narrowed in places with schools for Jewish Moroccans. These had a positive impact on girls’ contemporary levels of education, but a negative impact on the enrolment for boys following the dismantling of Jewish communities after 1948. DHS measures of preferences for female education point to a social norms transmission mechanism between Jewish and Muslim Moroccan communities. |
| Keywords: | education, colonial legacy, female education, Morocco, French Protectorate |
| JEL: | N37 O15 I21 |
| Date: | 2025–03–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nst:samfok:20225 |
| By: | Günther G. Schulze; Nikita Zakharov (Department of International Economic Policy, University of Freiburg) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we unveil targeted repression against journalists as an elaborate strategy used by modern autocrats to mitigate the risk of mass protests during autocratic electionsâa common threat to their rule. Repression is deployed to discipline the media before elections to secure favorable media coverage of the incumbent, thereby discourage public dissent. In contrast, the reigns are loosened during off-election periods to allow the mediaâs credibility to be rebuilt. This dynamic creates distinct electoral cycles of media repression in autocracies. Our empirical study establishes these cycles using a unique granular dataset on the harassment of journalists in Putin's Russia and the predetermined, staggered timing of local elections. We then demonstrate the disciplinary effects on reporting about incumbents using a novel media coverage index. Finally, employing survey data, we show that media repression is extremely effective when it comes to dwarfing the threat of anti-government protests. |
| Keywords: | Autocracy, elections, media repression, political cycles, protest. |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fre:wpaper:52 |