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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2024‒09‒16
ten papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Daron Acemoglu; Alexander Wolitzky |
| Abstract: | We propose a model of the interplay of employment relationships and community-based interactions among workers and managers. Employment relations can be either tough (where workers are monitored intensively and obtain few rents, and managers do not provide informal favors for their workers) or soft (where there is less monitoring, more worker rents, and more workplace favor exchange). Both workers and managers also exert effort in providing community benefits. The threat of losing access to community benefits can motivate managers to keep employment soft; conversely, the threat of losing future employment or future workers' trust can motivate workers and managers to exert effort in the community. Improvements in monitoring technologies; automation, outsourcing, and offshoring; declines in the minimum wage; and opportunities for residential segregation or for privatizing community-provided services can make both workers and managers worse-off by undermining soft employment relations and community cooperation. |
| JEL: | C73 D23 J00 P00 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32773 |
| By: | Sergio Galletta; Tommaso Giommoni |
| Abstract: | We explore the effects of exposure to conflict and violence on civic compliance with the law. Using newly digitized historical records of income declarations and tax audits from post-World War I Italy, we show that losing a relative as a direct result of the war reduces tax compliance. To account for the potential endogeneity of the treatment, we use an instrumental variable strategy exploiting the exogenous allocation of soldiers to more/less dangerous military units. Our results show that the effect of reduced tax compliance remains consistent across different measures of compliance and is not due to economic reasons. We also find that this negative impact is lessened when the state acknowledges the sacrifice of the deceased, in communities that suffered many casualties, or in areas with high levels of social cooperation before the war. Overall, our findings suggest that war can erode social norms, leading to a lower willingness to contribute to public goods, such as paying taxes. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11230 |
| By: | Gabriele Camera; Alessandro Gioffré |
| Abstract: | The literature on cooperation in infinitely repeated Prisoner’s Dilemmas covers the extreme opposites of the matching spectrum: partners, a player’s opponent never changes, and strangers, a player’s opponent randomly changes in every period. Here, we extend the analysis to settings where the opponent changes, but not in every period. In these temporary partnerships, players can deter some deviations by directly sanctioning their partner. Hence, relaxing the extreme assumption of one-period matchings can support some cooperation also off equilibrium because a class of strategies emerges that are less extreme than the typical “grim†strategy. We establish conditions supporting full cooperation as a subgame perfect equilibrium under a social norm that complements direct sanctions with a cyclical community sanction. Though this strategy less effectively incentivizes cooperation, it more effectively incentivizes punishment after a deviation, hence, can be preferable to the grim strategy under certain conditions. |
| Keywords: | prisoner's dilemma, random matching, social norms. |
| JEL: | E4 E5 C7 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2024_15.rdf |
| By: | Shan Huang; Yuan Yuan; Yi Ji |
| Abstract: | The diffusion of novel information through social networks is essential for dismantling echo chambers and promoting innovation. Our study examines how two major types of viral channels, specifically Direct Messaging (DM) and Broadcasting (BC), impact the well-known "strength of weak ties" in disseminating novel information across social networks. We conducted a large-scale empirical analysis, examining the sharing behavior of 500, 000 users over a two-month period on a major social media platform. Our results suggest a greater capacity for DM to transmit novel information compared to BC, although DM typically involves stronger ties. Furthermore, the "strength of weak ties" is only evident in BC, not in DM where weaker ties do not transmit significantly more novel information. Our mechanism analysis indicates that the content selection by both senders and recipients, contingent on tie strength, contributes to the observed differences between these two channels. These findings expand both our understanding of contemporary weak tie theory and our knowledge of how to disseminate novel information in social networks. |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2408.03579 |
| By: | M. Blomkvist; E. Liljeblom; A. Löflund; E. Redor (Audencia Business School) |
| Abstract: | We study investors' preferences for corporate political connections in the U.S. using a novel measure; shareholder votes given to individual directors. We find that, after fully accounting for all firm-year specific information and a wide range of director characteristics, politically connected directors on average do not obtain significantly greater shareholder support. During our sample period (2010-2020), we observe a diminishing popularity of politically connected directors. Political alignment to the incumbent government matters in the sense that Democrat directors are viewed as valuable to shareholders during the Obama administration. However, during Donald Trump's presidency a Democrat party affiliation instead turned into a liability. We also find that shareholders have a stronger preference for politically connected directors in heavily regulated industries, suggesting that board members can alleviate regulatory risk. Our study has implications for director selection and the role of political connections in shaping corporate governance practices. |
| Keywords: | Political Connections, Shareholder Support, Board of Directors, Industry Regulation |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04662505 |
| By: | Albrecht, James (Georgetown University); Edin, Per-Anders (Uppsala University); Fernández, Raquel (New York University); Lee, Jiwon (New York University); Thoursie, Peter Skogman (Stockholm University); Vroman, Susan (Georgetown University) |
| Abstract: | The distribution of parental leave uptake and childcare activities continues to conform to traditional gender roles. In 2002, with the goal of increasing gender equality, Sweden added a second "daddy month, " i.e., an additional month of pay-related parental leave reserved exclusively for each parent. This policy increased men's parental leave uptake and decreased women's, thereby increasing men's share. To understand how various factors contributed to these outcomes, we develop and estimate a quantitative model of the household in which preferences towards parental leave respond to peer behavior. We distinguish households by the education of the parents and ask the model to match key features of the parental leave distribution before and after the reform by gender and household type (the parents' education). We find that changed incentives and, especially, changed social norms played an important role in generating these outcomes whereas changed wage parameters, including the future wage penalty associated with different lengths of parental leave uptake, were minor contributors. We then use our model to evaluate three counterfactual policies designed to increase men's share of parental leave and conclude that giving each parent a non-transferable endowment of parental leave or only paying for the length of time equally taken by each parent would both dramatically increase men's share whereas decreasing childcare costs has almost no effect. |
| Keywords: | parental leave, gender equality, childcare, culture |
| JEL: | D10 J16 Z10 Z18 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17210 |
| By: | Churchill, Sefa Awaworyi (RMIT University); Chang, Simon (University of Western Australia); Smyth, Russell (Monash University); Trinh, Trong-Anh (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper extends prior theory linking present-day sex ratios to present-day propensity for entrepreneurship among men backward in time to explore the long-run gender origins of entrepreneurship. We argue that present-day propensity for entrepreneurship among men will be higher in neighbourhoods which had historically high sex ratios. We propose that high sex ratios generate attitudes and behaviours that imprint into cultural norms about gender roles and that vertical transmission within families create hysteresis in the evolution of these gender norms. To empirically test the theory, we employ the transport of convicts to the British colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a natural experiment to examine the long-run effect of gender norms on entrepreneurship in present-day Australia. We use a representative longitudinal dataset for the Australian population that provides information on the neighbourhood in which the participant lives, which we merge with data on the sex ratio in historical counties from the mid-nineteenth century. We find that men who live in neighbourhoods which had high historical sex ratios have a higher propensity for entrepreneurship. We present evidence consistent with the vertical transmission of gender norms within families being the likely mechanism. Arguments for policies to promote female entrepreneurship are typically couched in terms of gender norms representing a barrier to more women starting their own business. We present evidence consistent with gender norms contributing to gender differences in rates of entrepreneurship by being a spur for higher male entrepreneurship rather than a barrier to female entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | gender norms, sex ratios, entrepreneurship, Australia |
| JEL: | I31 J21 J22 N37 O10 Z13 Z18 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17170 |
| By: | Nupia Martínez, Oscar (Universidad de los Andes); Álvarez Gallo, Carlos Andrés (Universidad de los Andes) |
| Abstract: | We explore the impact of social protests on individual attitudes toward politics, human rights, and issues related to political economy. We use a unique panel dataset to analyze the effects of significant exposure to large-scale protests in 2019 in Colombia. The primary grievances fueling these social movements included dissatisfaction with the political elite, human rights violations, income inequality, and corruption. Our findings indicate that protests significantly alter individuals’ beliefs regarding some, but not all, of their core demands. We document a significant negative effect of protests on the likelihood of sympathizing with political parties and a positive effect on the appreciation for human rights. However, less robust evidence suggests that protests may decrease the probability of individuals endorsing a political ideology or accepting clientelistic offers. Additionally, we find no significant impact of demonstrations on individuals’ overall political ideology, their support for democratic elections, or their endorsement of distributive policies. |
| Keywords: | Social protest; political attitudes; political behavior; ideology; human rights; income distribution; clientelism. |
| JEL: | D72 D73 D74 D91 K38 |
| Date: | 2024–08–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:021190 |
| By: | Kitano, Shinichi |
| Abstract: | In rural development research, social capital (SC) complements the causal gap between the endowment of resources and other capital in a community and the performance of collective actions, such as common-pool resource management. However, the concept of SC is ambiguous and its measurement is controversial. This study focuses on rural SC and attempts to measure it inductively using data (994 communities) related to various collective actions (22 types), rather than deductively piling up the detailed components of SC, as several studies have done. Hierarchical latent variable models are used to understand the hierarchical structure of SC. We used spatial regression models to examine the policy’s causal impacts on SC accumulation while considering spatial heterogeneity. The results show that SC has spatial heterogeneity and a hierarchical structure, depending on the internal (bonding-type) and external (bridging-type) components, as well as on the difference between general activities and collective agricultural actions. The SC accumulation is strongly correlated with traditional and agriculture-related activities. Furthermore, policies increase comprehensive SC by approximately 20% but are more effective for internal SC than for external SC. These results suggest the need for policy options such as agglomeration bonuses when expanding the range of collective actions. Other findings indicate that the reinforcement of agricultural corporations and educational facilities are also effective in accumulating SC. |
| Keywords: | social capital, inductive measurement, heterogeneity, policy impact, hierarchical structure, spatial regression |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:301789 |
| By: | Heidland, Tobias; Wichardt, Philipp C |
| Abstract: | This paper connects insights from the literature on cosmopolitan worldviews and the effects of perspective-taking in political science, (intergroup) anxiety in social psychology, and identity economics in a vignette-style experiment. In particular, we asked German respondents about their attitudes towards a Syrian refugee, randomizing components of his description (N = 662). The main treatment describes the refugee as being aware of and empathetic towards potential worries in the German population about cultural change, costs, and violence associated with refugee inflows. This perspective-taking by the refugee increases the reported ability to empathize with the refugee and, especially for risk-averse people, reported sympathy and trust. We argue that acknowledging the potential concerns of the host population relieves the tension between an anxious and a cosmopolitan/open part of people’s identities. Moreover, relieved tension renders people less defensive; i.e. when one aspect of identity is already acknowledged (expressing anxieties), it has less influence on actual behavior (expressing sympathy). In addition, previous contact with foreigners and a higher willingness to take risks are important factors in determining an individual’s willingness to interact with refugees. |
| Keywords: | intergroup contact, intergroup anxiety, perspective-taking, identity, migration, inte-gration, refugees |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkie:301392 |