In this issue we feature 12 current papers on the theme of social capital, chosen by Fabio Sabatini [1] (Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”):
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- Determinants of trust: the role of personal experiences Frederik Schwerter; Florian Zimmermann
- Migration and the Value of Social Networks Blumenstock, Joshua; Chi, Guanghua; Tan, Xu
- Partial Norms D'Adda, Giovanna; Dufwenberg, Martin; Passarelli, Francesco; Tabellini, Guido
- Interacting collective action problems in the commons - Nicolas Querou
- Do farmers follow the herd? The influence of social norms in the participation to agri-environmental schemes. Philippe Le Coent; Raphaele Preget; Sophie Thoyer
- Cultural Transmission with Incomplete Information: Parental Perceived Efficacy and Group Misrepresentation. Sebastiano Della Lena; Fabrizio Panebianco
- The Intergenerational Behavioural Consequences of a Socio-Political Upheaval - Alison Booth; Xin Meng; Elliott Fan; Dandan Zhang
- Why understanding multiplex social network structuring processes will help us better understand the evolution of human behavior - Curtis Atkisson; Piotr J. G\'orski; Matthew O. Jackson; Janusz A. Ho{\l}yst; Raissa M. D'Souza
- Impact of religious participation, social interactions and globalisation on meat consumption: evidence from India - Massimo Filippini; Suchita Srinivasan
- The (in)elasticity of moral ignorance - Marta Serra-Garcia; Nora Szech
- Immigration and Right-Wing Populism: Evidence from a Natural Experiment - Mehic, Adrian
- Highly skilled and well connected: Migrant inventors in Cross-Border M&As - Diego USECHE; Ernest MIGUELEZ; Francesco LISSONI
1. Determinants of trust: the role of personal experiences
Frederik Schwerter; Florian Zimmermann
Social interactions pervade daily life and thereby create an abundance of
social experiences. Such personal experiences likely shape what we believe
and who we are. In this paper, we ask if and how personal experiences from
social interactions determine individuals? inclination to trust others? We
implement an experimental environment that allows us to manipulate prior
social experiences?either being paid or not being paid by a peer subject for
a task?and afterwards measure participant?s willingness to trust others. We
contrast this situation with a control condition where we keep all aspects
of the prior experiences identical, except that we remove the social
dimension. Our key finding is that after positive social experiences,
subjects? willingness to trust is substantially higher relative to subjects
who made negative social experiences. No such effect is obtained in the
control condition where we removed the social aspect of experiences.
Findings from a difference-in-difference analysis confirm this pattern. Our
results cannot be explained by rational learning, income effects, pay or
social comparison related mood, disappointment aversion and
expectations-based or social reference points. Delving into the underlying
mechanisms, we provide evidence that non-standard belief patterns are an
important driver of experience effects.
JEL: C91 D03 D81
Keywords: determinants of trust, experiences, beliefs, non-standard
learning, experiments
Date: 2019
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7545&r=soc [3]
2. Migration and the Value of Social Networks
Blumenstock, Joshua; Chi, Guanghua; Tan, Xu
What is the value of a social network? Prior work suggests two distinct
mechanisms that have historically been difficult to differentiate: as a
conduit of information, and as a source of social and economic support. We
use a rich 'digital trace' dataset to link the migration decisions of
millions of individuals to the topological structure of their social
networks. We find that migrants systematically prefer 'interconnected'
networks (where friends have common friends) to 'expansive' networks (where
friends are well connected). A micro-founded model of network-based social
capital helps explain this preference: migrants derive more utility from
networks that are structured to facilitate social support than from networks
that efficiently transmit information.
JEL: D85 O12 O15 R23 Z13
Keywords: Big Data; Development; migration; networks; social capital;
Social Networks
Date: 2019?03
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13611&r=soc [4]
3. Partial Norms
D'Adda, Giovanna; Dufwenberg, Martin; Passarelli, Francesco; Tabellini,
Guido
We consider an expanded notion of social norms that render them
belief-dependent and partial, formulate a series of related testable
predictions, and design an experiment based on a variant of the dictator
game that tests for empirical relevance. Main results: Normative beliefs
influence generosity, as predicted. Degree of partiality leads to more
dispersion in giving behavior, as predicted.
JEL: C91 D91
Keywords: Consensus; Experiment; normative expectations; partial norms;
Social norms
Date: 2019?03
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13593&r=soc [5]
4. Interacting collective action problems in the commons
Nicolas Querou (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier
- FRE2010 - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - UM -
Universit? de Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d??tudes
sup?rieures agronomiques de Montpellier)
We consider a setting where agents are subject to two types of collective
action problems, any group user's individual extraction inducing an
externality on others in the same group (intra-group problem), while
aggregate extraction in one group induces an externality on each agent in
other groups (intergroup problem). One illustrative example of such a
setting corresponds to a case where a common-pool resource is jointly
extracted in local areas, which are managed by separate groups of
individuals extracting the resource in their respective location. The
interplay between both types of externality is shown to affect the results
obtained in classical models of common-pool resources. We show how the
fundamentals affect the individual strategies and welfare compared to the
benchmark commons problems. Finally, different initiatives (local
cooperation, inter-area agreements) are analyzed to assess whether they may
alleviate the problems, and to understand the conditions under which they do
so.
Keywords: externalities,common-pool resource,collective action
Date: 2018
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpceem:halshs-01936007&r=soc [6]
5. Do farmers follow the herd? The influence of social norms in the
participation to agri-environmental schemes.
Philippe Le Coent (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement -
Montpellier - FRE2010 - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche
Agronomique - UM - Universit? de Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de
la Recherche Scientifique - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national
d??tudes sup?rieures agronomiques de Montpellier); Rapha?le Preget (CEE-M
- Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - FRE2010 - INRA -
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - UM - Universit? de
Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique -
Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d??tudes sup?rieures agronomiques
de Montpellier); Sophie Thoyer (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de
l'Environnement - Montpellier - FRE2010 - INRA - Institut National de la
Recherche Agronomique - UM - Universit? de Montpellier - CNRS - Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut
national d??tudes sup?rieures agronomiques de Montpellier)
This article analyses the role played by social norms in farmers' decisions
to enroll into an agri-environmental scheme (AES). First, it develops a
simple theoretical model highlighting the interplay of descriptive and
injunctive norms in farmers' utility functions. Second, an empirical
valuation of the effect of social norms is provided based on the results of
a stated preference survey conducted with 98 wine-growers in the South of
France. Proxies are proposed to capture and measure the weight of social
norms in farmers' decision to sign an agri-environmental contract. Our
empirical results indicate that the injunctive norm seems to play a stronger
role than the descriptive norm.
Keywords: agri-environmental contracts,behaviour,social norms
Date: 2018
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpceem:halshs-01936004&r=soc [7]
6. Cultural Transmission with Incomplete Information: Parental Perceived
Efficacy and Group Misrepresentation.
Sebastiano Della Lena; Fabrizio Panebianco (Universit? Cattolica del Sacro
Cuore; Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Universit? Cattolica del Sacro
Cuore)
This paper introduces incomplete information in the standard model of
cultural transmission (Bisin and Verdier, 2001). We allow parents to ignore
own group size and the efficiency of their cultural transmission technology,
while receiving a feedback from their children. Using the selfcon_rming
equilibrium concept, parents may end up to sustain, and be confirmed about,
wrong conjectures. We show that in equilibrium optimal socialization efforts
display cultural complementarity with respect to own population share, while
the standard substitution result holds with respect their own conjectured
population shares. Considering the population dynamics, if conjectures about
population shares are shaped by cultural leaders who want to maximize the
presence of own traits in the next period, then conjectures are
characterized by negative biases. Our main finding is that, depending on the
magnitude of the bias, the dynamics can display stable or unstable
polymorphic equilibria, or just a stable homomorphic equilibrium,
potentially reverting standard predictions
JEL: C72 D10 D80 J10 Z10
Keywords: Cultural Transmission; Incomplete Information; Selfcon rming
Equilibrium; Group Under-Representation; Parental Perceived Ecacy;
Cultural leaders.
Date: 2019?03
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def079&r=soc [8]
7. The Intergenerational Behavioural Consequences of a Socio-Political
Upheaval
Alison Booth; Xin Meng; Elliott Fan; Dandan Zhang
Social scientists have long been interested in the effects of
social-political upheavals on a society subsequently. A priori, we would
expect that, when traumas are brought about by outsiders, within-group
behaviour would become more collaborative, as society unites against the
common foe. Conversely, we would expect the reverse when the conflict is
generated within-group. In our paper we are looking at this second form of
upheaval, and our measure of within-group conflict is the 1966-1976 Cultural
Revolution (CR) that seriously disrupted many aspects of Chinese society. In
particular, we explore how individuals' behavioural preferences are affected
by within-group traumatic events experienced by their parents or
grandparents. Using data from a laboratory experiment in conjunction with
survey data, we find that individuals with parents or grandparents affected
by the CR are less trusting, less trustworthy, and less likely to choose to
compete than their counterparts whose predecessors were not direct victims
of the CR.
JEL: C91 N4
Keywords: Preferences, Behavioural Economics, Cultural Revolution
Date: 2019?02
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:hpaper:074&r=soc [9]
8. Why understanding multiplex social network structuring processes will
help us better understand the evolution of human behavior
Curtis Atkisson; Piotr J. G\'orski; Matthew O. Jackson; Janusz A.
Ho{\l}yst; Raissa M. D'Souza
Anthropologists have long appreciated that single-layer networks are
insufficient descriptions of human interactions---individuals are embedded
in complex networks with dependencies. One debate explicitly about this
surrounds food sharing. Some argue that failing to find reciprocal food
sharing means that some process other than reciprocity must be occurring,
whereas others argue for models that allow reciprocity to span domains. The
analysis of multi-dimensional social networks has recently garnered the
attention of the mathematics and physics communities. Multilayer networks
are ubiquitous and have consequences, so processes giving rise to them are
important social phenomena. Recent models of these processes show how
ignoring layer interdependencies can lead one to miss why a layer formed the
way it did, and/or draw erroneous conclusions. Understanding the structuring
processes that underlie multiplex networks will help understand increasingly
rich datasets, which give better, richer, and more accurate pictures of
social interactions.
Date: 2019?03
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1903.11183&r=soc [10]
9. Impact of religious participation, social interactions and
globalisation on meat consumption: evidence from India
Massimo Filippini (ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Suchita Srinivasan (ETH
Zurich, Switzerland)
From both health and environmental policy perspectives, it is advisable to
ensure that individuals maximise the nutritional gains from eating meat,
without having a significantly adverse environmental impact, i.e.
sustainable meat consumption pathways are imperative. This is especially
true for developing countries, where rising incomes and growing populations
have meant that meat consumption has also risen. India is an example of a
country where a large share of the population has been vegetarian due to
religious and cultural factors, although this is rapidly changing. In this
paper, we hypothesise that social interactions and globalisation are two
factors that explain this shift in consumption behaviour, especially amongst
Hindu households. These hypotheses are based on the theoretical findings of
Levy and Razin (2012). The empirical results show that Hindus that are
members of religious groups are less likely to eat meat than non-member
Hindus, whereas Hindus that are members of non-religious types of groups are
more likely to eat meat than non-members. We also find that Hindu households
that frequently use sources of media such as newspapers, the radio or
television are more likely to consume meat compared to Hindus that do not.
This paper provides important policy implications, both in terms of the
formulation of Nationally Recommended Diets in developing countries, and in
terms of identifying the channel of influence of both social networks and
globalisation on social and religious norms, consumption behaviour, and
ultimately, on climate change.
JEL: D83 Q18 Q54 C23 C26
Keywords: Meat consumption, Religious norms, Social interactions,
Globalisation, India
Date: 2018?11
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:18-304&r=soc [11]
10. The (in)elasticity of moral ignorance
Marta Serra-Garcia; Nora Szech
We investigate the elasticity of moral ignorance with respect to monetary
incentives and social norm information. We propose that individuals suffer
from higher moral costs when rejecting a certain donation, and thus pay for
moral ignorance. Consistent with our model, we find significant willingness
to pay for ignorance, which we calibrate against morally neutral benchmark
treatments. We show that the demand curve for moral ignorance exhibits a
sharp kink, of about 50 percent, when moving from small negative to small
positive monetary incentives. By contrast, while social norms strongly favor
information acquisition, they have little impact on curbing moral ignorance.
JEL: D83 D91 C91
Keywords: information avoidance, morality, unethical behavior, social norms
Date: 2019
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7555&r=soc [12]
11. Immigration and Right-Wing Populism: Evidence from a Natural
Experiment
Mehic, Adrian (Department of Economics, Lund University)
Between the 2014 and 2018 Swedish parliamentary elections, the vote share of
the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats increased significantly. To evaluate
the possibility of a causal link between immigration and the right-wing
populist vote, this paper uses data from a nationwide policy experiment,
under which refugees are allocated randomly to every municipality in the
country, creating exogenous variation in the number of refugees between
municipalities. Overall, I find a positive and significant impact of
immigration on the anti-immigration vote. In areas with strong
anti-immigration sentiments during the 1990s refugee wave, the effect is
magnified significantly. However, when considering immigration of a
particular refugee group dominated by young men, the relationship is
considerably weaker. I show that this is because immigration of young men
has a balancing effect on the right-wing populist vote among
immigration-friendly voter groups.
JEL: D72 J15 P16
Keywords: immigration; right-wing populism; natural experiment
Date: 2019?03?19
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2019_005&r=soc [13]
12. Highly skilled and well connected: Migrant inventors in Cross-Border
M&As
Diego USECHE; Ernest MIGUELEZ; Francesco LISSONI
Based on a relational view of international business, we investigate the
role of migrant inventors in Cross-Border Merger & Acquisitions (CBM&As)
undertaken by R&D-active firms. We hypothesize that the migrant inventors?
international social networks can be leveraged upon by their employers in
order to spot and/or integrate the knowledge bases of acquisition targets in
the inventors? home country. We nuance our hypothesis by means of several
conditional logistic regressions on a large matched sample of deals and
control cases. The impact of migrant inventors increases with the distance
between countries and for targets located in countries with weak
administrative/legal systems, as well as when targets are either innovative
or belong to high-tech sectors or to the same sector as the acquirer, and
for full versus partial acquisitions.
JEL: F22 F23
Keywords: cross-border mergers and acquisitions, migration, inventors, PCT
patents
Date: 2019
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2019-03&r=soc [14]
This nep-soc issue is ©2019 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.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org [15].