In this issue we feature 8 current papers on the theme of social capital:

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In this issue we have:

1. Beyond the Employment Agency: The Effect of Social Capital on the Duration of Unemployment - Philipp Marek; Benjamin Damm; Tong-Ya Su
2. Explaining Offline Participation in a Social Movement with Online Data: The Case of Observers for Fair Elections - Olessia Y. Koltsova; Galina I. Selivanova
3. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Most Central of Them All? Co-Pierre Georg and Michael E. Rose
4. Left Behind but Doing Good? Civic Engagement in Two Post-Socialist Countries - Milena Nikolova; Monica Roman; Klaus F. Zimmermann
5. Sleep Restriction and Time-of-Day Impacts On Simple Social Interaction (Moderate Sleep Restriction Increases Greed, Reduces Trust and Trustworthiness) - David L. Dickinson; Todd McElroy
6. Redistribution Through Charity, and Optimal Taxation when People are Concerned with Social Status - Thomas Aronsson; Olof Johansson-Stenman; Ronald Wendner
7. A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior - Martin Korndörfer; Boris Egloff; Stefan C. Schmukle
8. Socially Responsible Products: What Motivates Consumers to Pay a Premium? Chiu, Leslie J. Verteramo; Gomez, Miguel I.; Liaukonyte, Jura; Kaiser, Harry M.

1. Beyond the Employment Agency: The Effect of Social Capital on the Duration of Unemployment - Philipp Marek, Benjamin Damm, Tong-Ya Su

 This paper relates an individual’s social capital and the length of  unemployment spells of the very same individual. For this purpose, we analyze  several facets of an agent’s social activities as determinants of her social  capital. Social activities lead to social interactions within organizational  settings, which build up social capital at the group level. Via social  interactions an exchange of knowledge emerges, including information on  opportunities to get a job. An econometric duration model based on German  data is applied to empirically research the relationship between social  capital and the duration of unemployment. Our results show that an  individual’s social capital positively affects an agent’s probability to take  up employment in the next time period. This implies social capital shortens  the length of an unemployment spell significantly.

   Keywords: Social Capital, Job Search, Duration Analysis

   JEL: Z13 J64 C41

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp812&r=soc

2. Explaining Offline Participation in a Social Movement with Online Data: The Case of Observers for Fair Elections - Olessia Y. Koltsova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Galina I. Selivanova (National Research University Higher School of Economics)

 This research investigates to which extent activity of a social movement on a  social networking site is related to participation in the offline collective  action. We use the data from 17 online groups representing the branches of  the movement for Fair Elections in 17 districts of St.Petersburg, Russia, and  compare their online parameters to real offline participation of group  members in elections in the role of observers. With around 12,000 online  users and over 200 offline participants, we use social network analysis and  statistical analysis to obtain our results. We find that both on the group  and the individual levels participation is related to online networking  features and activity parameters, albeit to a modest degree, and offline  leaders are especially different from the rest of the members in terms of  most online features

   Keywords: social movements, online communities, social networks,

    participation, Russia.

   JEL: Z19

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:67/soc/2015&r=soc

3. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Most Central of Them All? Co-Pierre Georg and Michael E. Rose

 In academia, informal collaboration is an integral element in the production  of knowledge. We construct the social network of informal collaboration using  acknowledgments of 2782 scholarly articles published in six journals in  financial economics. We rank financial economists according to their  centrality in the network and find that central commenters are not  necessarily the most central or the most productive authors. We explore the  determinants of high centrality rankings using detailed CV data for the most  central academics. A PhD from a better ranked department is associated with a  better centrality ranking. Seniority is associated with worse rankings,  albeit at a decreasing rate.

   Keywords: Knowledge production, formal collaboration, informal

    collaboration, social network, acknowledgements

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:571&r=soc

4. Left Behind but Doing Good? Civic Engagement in Two Post-Socialist Countries - Milena Nikolova; Monica Roman;Klaus F. Zimmermann

 The fall of socialism in Central and Eastern Europe restored ordinary  citizens’ rights and freedoms and ended their political and social isolation.

 While the freedom of movement was quickly embraced, civil society revival  lagged due to the eroded civic norms, declining social capital, and worsening  economic conditions. In this paper, we examine the link between the  out-migration of relatives and friends and the pro-social behavior of the  left behinds in two post-socialist countries—Bulgaria and Romania—the EU’s  poorest, unhappiest, and among the most corrupt members. We show that having  close contacts abroad is consistently positively associated with civic  engagement and that the cultural transmission of norms from abroad could be  driving the results. Specifically, the strength of the civic engagement  culture of the family or friend’s destination matters for the pro-social  behavior of respondents in the home countries. Our results imply that the  emigration of family and friends may have positive but previously  undocumented consequences for the individuals and communities left behind in  Bulgaria and Romania. Given civil society’s role for development in  post-socialist Europe and the socio-economic and institutional challenges  that Bulgaria and Romania face compared with the rest of the EU,  understanding the channels fostering civil society and well-being are  important for national and EU policymakers.

   Keywords: : international migration, left behind, civic engagement, social

    remittances, post-socialism

   JEL: I30 I31 F22 P30 Z10

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cel:dpaper:36&r=soc

5. Sleep Restriction and Time-of-Day Impacts On Simple Social Interaction (Moderate Sleep Restriction Increases Greed, Reduces Trust and Trustworthiness) - David L. Dickinson; Todd McElroy

 Key Words: Simple bargaining games are the foundation of more complex social  interactions necessary for healthy relationships and well-functioning  societies. Neuroscience research has shown that high-level deliberative  thinking processes are necessary for social-decision making—it seems  cognitively less demanding to be greedy or to mistrust. In this paper, our  focus is on how commonly-experienced adverse sleep states, which are known to  harm deliberative thinking, impact outcomes in the classic simple bargaining  games (ultimatum, dictator, and trust games). Specifically, we experimentally  manipulate sleep states of 184 young-adult subjects who took part in a 3 week  experimental protocol. Subjects were administered each game twice: once after  a full week of sleep restriction and once after a full week of well-rested  sleep levels. Subjects were also randomly assigned to early morning (7:30 am)  or later evening (10:00 pm) sessions to manipulate the optimality of the  time-of-day of the decisions. We find a robust result of increased greed,  reduced trust, and reduced trustworthiness following sleep restriction, after  controlling for demographics and session indicators. We find no significant  direct impact of circadian timing on decisions for these tasks. However, the  mediating variable for these sleep manipulation effects is subjective  sleepiness, and both sleep restriction and suboptimal circadian timing  significantly increase self-reported sleepiness. These results are consistent  with the hypothesis that increased sleepiness reduces the relative input of  deliberate thinking in social interactions.

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:16-03&r=soc

6. Redistribution Through Charity, and Optimal Taxation when People are Concerned with Social Status - Thomas Aronsson (Umea University); Olof Johansson-Stenman (University of Gothenburg); Ronald Wendner (University of Graz)

 This paper deals with tax policy responses to charitable giving based on a  model of optimal redistributive income taxation. The major contribution is  the simultaneous treatment of (i) warm-glow and stigma effects of charitable  donations; (ii) that the warm glow of giving and stigma of receiving charity  may to some extent depend on relative comparisons; and (iii) that people are  also concerned with their relative consumption more generally. Whether  charity should be taxed or supported turns out to largely depend on the  relative strengths of the warm glow of giving and the stigma of receiving  charity, respectively, and on the positional externalities caused by  charitable donations. In addition, imposing stigma on the mimicker (via a  relaxation of the self-selection constraint) strengthens the case for  subsidizing charity. We also consider a case where the government is unable  to target the charitable giving through a direct tax instrument, and examine  how the optimal marginal income tax structure is adjusted in response to  charitable giving.

   Keywords: Conspicuous consumption; conspicuous charitable giving; optimal income taxation; warm glow; stigma

   JEL: D03 D62 H21 H23

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grz:wpaper:2016-01&r=soc

7. A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior - Martin Korndörfer (University of Leipzig); Boris Egloff (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)

   Stefan C. Schmukle (University of Leipzig)  Does being from a higher social class lead a person to engage in more or less  prosocial behavior? Psychological research has recently provided support for  a negative effect of social class on prosocial behavior. However, research  outside the field of psychology has mainly found evidence for positive or  u-shaped relations. In the present research, we therefore thoroughly examined  the effect of social class on prosocial behavior. Moreover, we analyzed  whether this effect was moderated by the kind of observed prosocial behavior,  the observed country, and the measure of social class. Across eight studies  with large and representative international samples, we predominantly found  positive effects of social class on prosociality: Higher class individuals  were more likely to make a charitable donation and contribute a higher  percentage of their family income to charity (32,090 >= N >= 3,957; Studies  1–3), were more likely to volunteer (37,136 >= N >= 3,964; Studies 4–6), were  more helpful (N = 3,902; Study 7), and were more trusting and trustworthy in  an economic game when interacting with a stranger (N = 1,421; Study 8) than  lower social class individuals. Although the effects of social class varied  somewhat across the kinds of prosocial behavior, countries, and measures of  social class, under no condition did we find the negative effect that would  have been expected on the basis of previous results reported in the  psychological literature. Possible explanations for this divergence and  implications are discussed.

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:1601&r=soc

8. Socially Responsible Products: What Motivates Consumers to Pay a Premium? Chiu, Leslie J. Verteramo; Gomez, Miguel I.;  Liaukonyte, Jura; Kaiser, Harry M.

The motivation to pay a premium for socially responsible products is partly  an expression of consumer concern for the well-being of those involved in the  production process. Thus, choosing to buy a product with a socially  responsible label and choosing to donate to a charity are similarly motivated  actions. While there is an extensive literature on the economics of  charitable giving that examines motivations to donate as well as on the  impacts of labeling on consumer demand, there is very little overlap between  the two literatures. In this paper we attempt to bridge these two literatures  by investigating whether consumers have heterogeneous motivations for paying  a premium. We design a lab experiment that auctions coffee with hypothetical  socially responsible labels that put different weights on in-kind vs. cash  transfers. We find that those consumers who prefer to restrict most of the  premium to be an in-kind transfer (and are classified as paternalistic altruists) are willing to pay a 52.5% price premium over standard coffee.

Those who prefer that most of the premium is paid as cash to the recipient  (strong altruists) are willing to pay a 42.5% premium. Finally, those who are  indifferent to how the premium is spent by the recipient (warmglow givers)  are willing to pay only a 19.2% premium. We discuss the implications of our  results and future research directions

Keywords: The motivation to pay a premium for socially responsible products is partly an expression of consumer concern for the well-being of those involved in the production process. Thus, choosing to buy a product with a socially responsible label and choosing to donate to a charity are similarly motivated actions. While there is an extensive literature on the economics of charitable giving that examines motivations to donate as well as on the impacts of labeling on consumer demand, there is very little overlap between the two literatures. In this paper we attempt to bridge these two literatures by investigating whether consumers have heterogeneous motivations for paying a premium. We design a lab experiment that auctions coffee with hypothetical socially responsible labels that put different weights on in-kind vs. cash transfers. We find that those consumers who prefer to restrict most of the premium to be an in-kind transfer (and are classified as paternalistic altruists) are willing to pay a 52.5% price premium over standard coffee. Those who prefer that most of the premium is paid as cash to the recipient (strong altruists) are willing to pay a 42.5% premium. Finally, those who are indifferent to how the premium is spent by the recipient (warmglow givers) are willing to pay only a 19.2% premium. We discuss the implications of our results and future research directions, Consumer/Household Economics, D12, M3, Q11, URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:assa16:212829&r=soc

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