In this issue we feature 11 current papers on the theme of social capital, chosen by Fabio Sabatini (Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”):

1. Friendship Networks and Political Opinions: A Natural Experiment among Future French Politicians By Yann Algan; Nicolò Dalvit; Quoc-Anh Do; Alexis Le Chapelain; Yves Zenou
2. You'll Never Walk Alone: Unemployment, Social Networks and Leisure Activities By Filomena, Mattia; Picchio, Matteo
3. Increasing the acceptability of carbon taxation: The role of social norms and economic reasoning By Fang, Ximeng; Innocenti, Stefania

1. Friendship Networks and Political Opinions: A Natural Experiment among Future French Politicians

   By:	Yann Algan; Nicolò Dalvit; Quoc-Anh Do; Alexis Le Chapelain; Yves Zenou
   Abstract:	We study how social interaction and friendship shape students' political opinions in a natural experiment at Sciences Po, the cradle of top French politicians. Quasi-random assignments of students into the same short-term integration groups before their scholar curriculum reduce political opinion gap, and increase friendship formation. Using the pairwise indicator of same-group membership as instrumental variable for friendship, we find that friendship causes a reduction of differences in opinions by 40% of the standard deviation of opinion gap. The evidence is consistent with a homophily-enforced mechanism, by which friendship causes initially politically-similar students to join political associations together, which reinforces their political similarity, without exercising an effect on initially politically-dissimilar pairs. Friendship affects opinion gaps by reducing divergence, therefore polarization and extremism, without forcing individuals’ views to converge. Network characteristics also matter to the friendship effect.
   Keywords:	political opinion, social networks, friendship effect, polarization, homophily, extremism, natural experiment
   JEL:	C93 D72 Z13
   Date:	2023
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10753&r=soc

2. You'll Never Walk Alone: Unemployment, Social Networks and Leisure Activities

   By:	Filomena, Mattia (Masaryk University); Picchio, Matteo (Marche Polytechnic University)
   Abstract:	We analyse how unemployment affects individuals' social networks, leisure activities, and the related satisfaction measures. Using the LISS panel, a representative longitudinal survey of the Dutch population, we estimate the effects by inverse propensity score weighting in a difference-in-differences design in order to deal with unobserved heterogeneity and unbalanced covariate distribution between treated and control units potentially associated with the dynamics of the outcome variables. We find that, after job loss, individuals increase their network size by strengthening their closest contacts within the family, spending more time with neighbors, and making more use of social media. Although they devote their extra leisure time mostly to private activities, our results do not support the hypothesis of social exclusion following unemployment.
   Keywords:	unemployment, job loss, social exclusion, leisure, social satisfaction, doubly robust difference-in-differences
   JEL:	I31 J01 J64
   Date:	2023–11
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16579&r=soc

3. Increasing the acceptability of carbon taxation: The role of social norms and economic reasoning

   By:	Fang, Ximeng; Innocenti, Stefania
   Abstract:	Green transitions require ambitious policy. This poses a political economy challenge. We study how social norms and economic reasoning jointly shape public views towards carbon taxation with uniform redistribution, using a representative survey experiment in the U.S. (N=2, 688). Video interventions that correct misperceived norms about climate action and/or explain the policy lead to an initial boost in support that fades away after several months and does not increase environmental donations. However, the combined intervention persistently reduces strong opposition by over 20%, pointing towards the joint roles of different motives in shifting the Overton window for climate policy.
   Keywords:	climate policy, carbon pricing, policy understanding, social norms, pluralistic ignorance, information intervention, survey experiment
   JEL:	Q54 Q58 D78 D91
   Date:	2023–11
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amz:wpaper:2023-25&r=soc

This nep-soc issue is ©2023 by Fabio Sabatini. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.

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NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.