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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2025–01–13
nine papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Aksoy, Cevat Giray (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development); Eichengreen, Barry (University of California, Berkeley); Litina, Anastasia (University of Macedonia); Özgüzel, Cem (Paris School of Economics); Yu, Chan (University of International Business and Economics Beijing) |
| Abstract: | Scholars and politicians have expressed concern that immigrants from countries with low levels of political trust transfer those attitudes to their destination countries. Using large-scale survey data covering 38 countries and exploiting origin-country variation across different cohorts and survey rounds, we show that, to the contrary, immigrants more exposed to institutional corruption before migrating exhibit higher levels of political trust in their new country. Higher trust is observed for national political institutions only and does not carry over to other supra-national institutions and individuals. We report evidence that higher levels of political trust among immigrants persist, leading to greater electoral participation and political engagement in the long run. The impact of home-country corruption on political trust in the destination country is further amplified by large differences in levels of income and democracy between home and host countries, which serve to highlight the contrast in the two settings. It is lessened by exposure to media, a source of information about institutional quality. Finally, our extensive analyses indicate that self-selection into host countries based on trust is highly unlikely and the results hold even when focusing only on forced migrants who were unlikely to have been subject to selection. |
| Keywords: | corruption, institutions, immigrants, political trust |
| JEL: | Z1 D73 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17553 |
| By: | Ehrmann, Michael |
| Abstract: | Trust in the central bank is an essential ingredient for a successful conduct of monetary policy. However, for many central banks trust has recently declined, for instance in the wake of the post-pandemic inflation surge, due to large errors in central banks’ inflation forecasts, or given problems when exiting from forward guidance. The rapid, substantial and persistent erosion of trust makes it clear that trust needs to be earned continuously. This paper reviews why trust is important, what determines it and how central banks can enhance it. It also argues that it is important for central banks to improve the measurement and monitoring of trust. It ends by highlighting some future challenges for maintaining trust. JEL Classification: E52, E58, G53 |
| Keywords: | central banks, credibility, inflation expectations, monetary policy, trust |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20243006 |
| By: | Alabrese, Eleonora (University of Bath, CAGE and SAFE); Capozza, Francesco (WZB Berlin, BSoE, and CESifo); Garg, Prashant (Imperial College London) |
| Abstract: | As social media is increasingly popular, we examine the reputational costs of its increased centrality among academics. Analyzing posts of 98, 000 scientists on Twitter (2016-2022) reveals substantial and varied political discourse. We assess the impact of such online political expression with online experiments on a representative sample of 3, 700 U.S. respondents and 135 journalists who rate vignettes of synthetic academic profiles with varied political affiliations. Politically neutral scientists are viewed as the most credible. Strikingly, on both the 'left' and 'right' sides of politically neutral, there is a monotonic penalty for scientists displaying political affiliations: the stronger their posts, the less credible their profile and research are perceived, and the lower the public's willingness to read their content, especially among oppositely aligned respondents. A survey of 128 scientists shows awareness of this penalty and a consensus on avoiding political expression outside their expertise. |
| Keywords: | Social Media, Scientists’ Credibility, Polarization, Online Experiment JEL Classification: A11, C93, D72, D83, D91, I23, Z10, Z13 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:735 |
| By: | Kenju Kamei (Keio University); Louis Putterman (Brown University); Katy Tabero (University of Southampton); Jean-Robert Tyran (University of Vienna) |
| Abstract: | Corruption is the great disease of government. It undermines the efficiency of the public sector in many countries around the world. We experimentally study civic engagement (CE) as a constraint on corruption when incentives are stacked against providing CE. We show that CE is powerful in curbing corruption when citizens can encourage each other to provide CE through social approval. Social approval induces strategic complementarity among conditional cooperators which counteracts the strategic substitutability (which tends to limit beneficial effects of CE) built into our design. We also show that civic engagement in the lab is correlated with civic engagement in the field, and that the effects of social approval are surprisingly robust to framing in our setting. |
| Keywords: | Corruption, Civic engagement, Public sector, Public goods, Social approval |
| JEL: | C92 D73 D91 H41 |
| Date: | 2024–12–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2024-025 |
| By: | van de Kraats, Coen (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Galama, Titus (University of Southern California); Lindeboom, Maarten (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Deng, Zichen (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | We provide evidence that the social norm (expectation) that adults work has a substantial detrimental causal effect on the mental well-being of unemployed men in mid-life, as substantial as, e.g., the detriment of being widowed. As their peers in age retire and the social norm weakens, the mental well-being of the unemployed improves. Using data on individuals aged 50+ from 10 European countries, we identify the social norm of work effect using exogenous variation in the earliest eligibility age for old-age public pensions across countries and birth cohorts. |
| Keywords: | mental well-being, social norm of work, retirement institution |
| JEL: | I10 I31 J60 D63 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17586 |
| By: | Kovacic, Matija; Orso, Cristina Elisa |
| Abstract: | This research investigates why some women like STEM occupations more than others. We show that this phenomenon is rooted in historical kin-based norms and specific aspects of cognition, perceptions, and aspirations enforced by the normative demands of ancestral societies. Using a sub-population of second-generation immigrants from the European Social Survey (ESS), we find that intensive kinship ties, supported by strong cousin-marriage preferences, co-residence of extended families, and community endogamy, which resulted in the enforcement of stricter social norms and greater conformity while discouraging individualism, independence, and analytical thinking, had a persistent negative impact on women's current STEM occupation choices. In addition to the individual-level analysis, we also document that kinship intensity reduces the proportion of women in STEM across countries, thereby widening the documented gender gaps. Furthermore, we show that the causal link between norms, cognition, and occupation is both direct and indirect, passing through contemporary cultural traits. At the same time, ancestral kin does not significantly affect men's occupational choices, while it increases the likelihood of having a gender-biased opinion about the role of women in the labour market. The results are robust to a rich set of potential confounding factors at the country of origin level and a battery of sensitivity checks. |
| Keywords: | Kin-based institutions, gender-based norms, analytic cognition, STEM |
| JEL: | D03 J16 N30 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1522 |
| By: | Hermes, Henning; Krauß, Marina; Lergetporer, Philipp; Peter, Frauke; Wiederhold, Simon |
| Abstract: | This field experiment investigates the causal impact of mothers' perceptions of gender norms on their employment attitudes and labor-supply expectations. We provide mothers of young children in Germany with information about the prevailing gender norm regarding maternal employment in their city. At baseline, over 70% of mothers incorrectly perceive this gender norm as too conservative. Our randomized treatment improves the accuracy of these perceptions, significantly reducing the share of mothers who misperceive gender norms as overly conservative. The treatment also shifts mothers' own labor-market attitudes towards being more liberal - and we show that specifically the shifted attitude is a strong predictor of mothers' future labor-market participation. Consistently, treated mothers are significantly more likely to plan an increase in their working hours one year ahead. |
| Keywords: | gender equality, gender norms, maternal employment, randomized controlled trial |
| JEL: | C93 J16 J18 J22 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:308051 |
| By: | Alger, Ingela; Bayer, Péter |
| Abstract: | Norms indicate which behaviors are commonly expected and/or considered to be morally right. We examine how such norms come about and change by modeling a population of individuals with preferences – found elsewhere to be evolutionarily founded – combining ma-terial self-interest, Kantian moral concerns, and attitudes towards being materially ahead and behind others. The individuals interact in a public goods game. We identify conditions on preferences and beliefs which promote, respectively hamper, spontaneous norm change. Cru-cially, an individual’s preferences and beliefs about the material benefits uniquely determines her threshold for collective behavior: s/he contributes if and only if sufficiently many others do so. However, those with sufficiently strong Kantian concerns contribute regardless. |
| Keywords: | moral norms; descriptive norms; social norms; social-Kantian preferences |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:130038 |
| By: | Broso, Matteo; Gallice, Andrea; Muratori, Caterina |
| Abstract: | Men and women often sort into different jobs, and male-dominated jobs typically pay more than female-dominated ones. Why is that the case? We propose a model where workers have heterogeneous attitudes with respect to the social norms that define gender prescribed occupations and face endogenous social costs when entering jobs deemed "appropriate" for the other gender. We show that: (i) workers trade off identity and wage considerations in deciding where to work; (ii) asymmetric social norms contribute to the gender pay gap by deterring women from entering higher-paying male-dominated sectors; (iii) breaking social norms generates positive externalities, reducing social stigma for everyone. Therefore, in equilibrium, there are too few social norm breakers. |
| Keywords: | Occupational Segregation, Wage Gap, Social Norms |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1529 |