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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2026–03–09
ten papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Atalay, Kadir (University of Sydney, Australia); Staneva, Anita (Griffith University, Australia); Zhu, Rong (Flinders University, Australia) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the causal impact of retirement on social capital using nationally representative Australian panel data. Exploiting the eligibility age for the Age Pension, we find that retirement significantly enhances social capital by increasing social connectedness and community involvement. These gains improve physical and mental health, with effects comparable to those of physical activity. However, older individuals’ perceptions of social relationships remain unchanged. Our findings highlight a key policy trade-off: while raising the retirement age may boost labor force participation, it may reduce opportunities for meaningful social engagement and, in turn, undermine the health of older adults. |
| Keywords: | retirement, social capital, hHealth, public pension |
| JEL: | H55 I10 I31 J26 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18396 |
| By: | Paola Boel; Daniela Puzzello; Peter Zimmerman |
| Abstract: | In 2023, over 18 percent of US households were either unbanked or underbanked, a group commonly referred to as financially underserved (e.g., see Burhouse, Navarro and Osaki (2016)). Prior work and survey evidence identify a lack of broad-scope trust in banks as an important reason for financial exclusion (e.g., FDIC (2024), Falcettoni and Nygaard (2025), and Xu (2020)). Yet it is not clear whether this mistrust is unique to banks or whether it extends to other institutions, such as government entities or nonbank providers of account services. This distinction matters for policymakers when considering how to serve this segment of the population. If mistrust is specific to banks, then alternative providers of account services — such as nonbanks or government entities — could improve access to the financial system. But if mistrust extends to alternative providers, then financial education or other trust-building initiatives might be more effective at increasing financial inclusion. To address this gap, we designed our own surveys and fielded them to a sample of unbanked and underbanked individuals in the US. We elicited their levels of trust in various institutions, including different types of banks, government-related entities, and alternative payment providers. Using principal component analysis, we identify three dominant components of the trust scores which we label, in descending order of importance: (1) broad-scope trust, (2) concerns about traditional financial institutions, and (3) preference for a physical business presence. We explore how sociodemographic characteristics, including income, age, education, race and political affiliation, affect these components of trust. |
| Keywords: | Financial access; trust |
| JEL: | D10 G21 G40 G50 |
| Date: | 2026–03–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwq:102833 |
| By: | Marcelo Bergolo; Martin Leites; Ricardo Perez-Truglia; Matías Strehl-Pessina |
| Abstract: | Why do some individuals evade taxes while others do not? We study this question using administrative tax records from Uruguay linked to a tailored survey of taxpayers. Using third-party reports, we measure individual income under-reporting as an indicator of evasion. We then examine how three factors predict who evades: social preferences (e.g., honesty measured through incentivized laboratory games), peers (e.g., the behavior of current and former coworkers), and economic factors (e.g., the marginal tax rate). We find that social preferences have little power to predict evasion, while economic factors matter more and peer behavior is the strongest predictor. |
| Keywords: | tax evasion, social preferences, beliefs |
| JEL: | C93 H26 K34 K42 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12432 |
| By: | Virginia Minni (University of Chicago); Kieu-Trang Nguyen (University of Melbourne); Heather Sarsons (University of Chicago); Carla Srebot (University of British Columbia) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how managers’ gender attitudes shape workplace culture and gender inequality. Using data from a multinational firm operating in over 100 countries, we leverage cross-country manager rotations to identify the effects of male managers’ gender attitudes on gender pay gaps within a team. Managers from countries with one standard deviation more progressive gender attitudes reduce the pay gap by 5 percentage points (18%), largely through higher promotion rates for women. These effects persist after managers rotate out and are strongest in more conservative countries. Managers with progressive attitudes also influence the local office culture, as local managers who interact with but are not under the purview of the foreign manager begin to have smaller pay gaps in their teams. Our evidence points to individual managers as critical in shaping corporate culture. |
| Keywords: | managers, gender gaps, corporate culture, multinationals |
| JEL: | J16 J24 F23 M14 M5 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfi:wpaper:2026-22 |
| By: | Kishida, Reina |
| Abstract: | This study examines how women’s labor migration affects their decision-making participation in household savings and how gender norms shape these outcomes. Using Indonesian data, analyses reveal contrasting effects based on community norms. Shift-share instrumental variables analysis shows that 5 years after migration, women from non-restrictive communities gain decision-making power in savings by more than 20%, while those from restrictive communities show limited or negative effects. Staggered difference-in-differences event studies, which reflect the self-selective nature of migration, suggest that women from restrictive communities experience a short-term increase in decision-making 3~7 years after migration timing, while women from non-restrictive regions do not necessarily increase power, possibly due to high initial levels. These findings underscore the role of migration selectivity and gender norms in determining migration’s potential for female empowerment. |
| Date: | 2026–02–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:tkjnx_v1 |
| By: | Lucas Braga de Melo (Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Finland); Valdemar Pinho Neto (EPGE/FGV) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the economic returns to political connections in Brazilian local elections, focusing not only on traditional campaign donations but also on two novel channels: firms that provide goods or services to candidates during campaigns and firms’ owners affiliated with parties within a coalition running for mayor. Employing regression discontinuity and event study methods around close mayoral races, we find that politically connected firms substantially increase both their likelihood of securing procurement contracts and the value of those contracts, though without corresponding gains in employment or wages. This paper contributes to the literature on political connections by documenting the emergence of indirect political connections and public procurement allocation in a context of weak institutional constraints. |
| Keywords: | political connections, procurement, firms |
| JEL: | D72 H72 D73 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tkk:dpaper:dp175 |
| By: | Leogrande, Angelo; Arnone, Massimo; Drago, Carlo; Costantiello, Alberto; Anobile, Fabio |
| Abstract: | The paper aims to investigate the determinants of the Perceived Risk of Crime (PRC) in Italian regions for the period 2004-2022, with data provided by the ISTAT-BES framework. The analysis relies on a regional panel dataset, which is somewhat unbalanced, with an extensive set of socio-institutional, crime, and subjective well-being variables, such as social participation, trust in people, trust in the judiciary, pickpocketing, fear of crime, life satisfaction, pessimism about the future, and dissatisfaction with the regional landscape. The analysis combines classical panel data methodologies with machine learning techniques to check the robustness of the results and to detect regional latent patterns. In all models, namely, fixed effects, random effects, dynamic panel, and weighted least squares, it is confirmed that objective crime variables, as well as subjective ones, play a crucial role in determining PRC. In particular, it is confirmed that, among the variables, pickpocketing and fear of crime are the most important positive determinants of PRC, while trust in people and trust in the judiciary have a significant mitigating effect on PRC. Variables concerning pessimism about the future and environmental dissatisfaction are also confirmed to have a positive effect on PRC. Among several machine learning alternatives, the regularized linear regression model is selected as the best-performing predictive model, which provides an interpretable and accurate representation of the relationships between the variables. In addition, model-based clustering allows us to detect different regional profiles characterized by different combinations of crime, trust, well-being, and security perceptions. In conclusion, the results confirm that PRC in Italian regions depends on the complex interaction between actual crime, emotional reactions, trust, and quality of life, suggesting that effective policies to address PRC should be based on the integrated action of crime control strategies, trust-building, social cohesion, and quality of the regional landscape. |
| Date: | 2026–02–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:rd2sv_v1 |
| By: | Dominik Suri (University of Bonn); Jan Börner (jborner@uni-bonn.de); Zerihun Kebebew (Jimma University); Sebastian Kube (University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Forest protection contributes to climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation.Yet negative income shocks can induce local forest users to increase extraction in order to cope with economic hardship. We study how social norms shape collaborative forest management when communities face an exogenous income shock. We implement an incentivized framed field experiment with 162 smallholder farmers in rural Ethiopia using an interactive dynamic resource extraction game. Farmers individually decide how many trees to harvest from a community forest: harvested trees yield private income, whereas unharvested trees generate group benefits. They do so under different experimental treatments—either with or without i) the presence of a negative income shock and ii) a previous activation of social norms—allowing us to causally identify mechanisms shaping forest management. We find that the activation of social norms fosters fully sustainable resource management in the absence of an income shock. Moreover, a different norm emerges when the community encounters an income shock: now, harvesting more than can sustainably regrow is considered socially appropriate and harvesting behavior adjusts accordingly. Yet without norm activation, the negative income shock puts even more pressure on deforestation. Taken together, these findings suggest that policy-makers should work with local communities to develop complementary institutional mechanisms that sustain collective forest management in times of crisis. |
| Keywords: | Common-pool resources, forest commons, social norms, income shock, framed field experiment, community forest management, cooperation |
| JEL: | Q20 Q23 Q50 Q56 D70 D91 D64 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:393 |
| By: | Riccardo Ghidoni; David Schindler |
| Abstract: | During World War II, French Moroccan troops performed numerous acts of (sexual) violence against the Italian population, known in Italy as the Marocchinate. We demonstrate that these events led to contagion in prejudice: They triggered a pronounced shift to the far right following the recent mass influx of migrants from Syria, the Middle East and Northern Africa. Survey results provide no evidence of intergenerational transmission of attitudes but identify selective recall of collective memory as a likely channel. |
| Keywords: | collective memory, contagion, WWII, associative recall |
| JEL: | N34 N44 D72 D91 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12376 |
| By: | Gilev, Aleksei; Valastro, Tommaso; Vyrskaia, Marina; Zavadskaya, Margarita (Finnish Institute of International Affairs) |
| Abstract: | This report presents findings from the fifth wave of the PROPA online survey, conducted between 10 and 27 October 2025 among Russian citizens aged 18 and older (N = 2, 676). The survey examines economic perceptions, political attitudes, views on the war in Ukraine, experiences with crime, social networks, and media consumption. Key findings • Economic perceptions remain stable but pessimistic. Across waves, respondents’ self-assessments of their personal economic situation show little change, and average satisfaction remains low. Concern about rising prices remains consistently high across social groups. • Attitudes toward the war in Ukraine remain polarized, and support coexists with negotiation preferences.Nearly half of respondents express support for the war, while a comparable share favors initiating peace negotiations. Notably, a substantial minority of those who declare support for the war also support starting negotiations. • Personal exposure to the war is widespread and politically consequential. Many respondents report personal connections to the war through participation or losses among close contacts. Such exposure is strongly associated with both support for continued military action and expectations about the war’s duration. • Fraud is the most common crime reported, trust in law enforcement remains moderate. Most respondents report no direct experience of crime in recent years. Among those who have, fraud is the most common form of crime. However, reporting varies by age, gender, region. Willingness to seek police assistance depends strongly on prior experience with law enforcement. • Media consumption continues to shift toward Telegram amid declining trust in news. Reliance on several traditional and online news sources has declined, while Telegram has continued to grow as a key source of political information. Across platforms, respondents report declining trust in news and political information. Taken together, the results of Wave 5 portray a society characterized by persistent economic anxiety, polarized war-related attitudes, evolving information habits, and complex patterns of vulnerability and social interaction. |
| Date: | 2026–02–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:jkvhb_v1 |