In this issue we feature 9 current papers on the theme of social capital:

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1. Understanding Gender Differences in Leadership - Alan, Sule; Ertac, Seda; Kubilay, Elif; Lóránth, Gyöngyi
2. Trading off between equity and efficiency in dictator and trust games - Ambec, Stefan; Garapin, Alexis; Muller, Laurent; Rahali, Bilel
3. Social networks, agricultural innovatons, and farm productivity in Ethiopia - Mekonnen, Daniel Ayalew; Gerber, Nicolas; Matz, Julia Anna
4. Social participation and self-rated psychological health - Fiorillo, D.; Lavadera, G.L.; Nappo, N.
5. The Role of Social Networks Among Low-Income Fathers: Findings from the PACT Evaluation - Angela Valdovinos D'Angelo; Emily Knas; Pamela Holcomb; Kathryn Edin
6. Analysis of participation in collective action initiatives for addressing unilateral agri-environmental externalities - Willy, Daniel Kyalo; Kuhn, Arnim; Müller, Karin Holm
7. Group preferences over social risk: does (group) size matter? Morone, Andrea; Temerario, Tiziana
8. Does Migration Cause Extreme Voting? Sascha O. Becker; Thiemo Fetzer
9. Loyalty, exit, and enforcement: evidence from a Kenya Dairy Cooperative - Lorenzo Casaburi; Rocco Macchiavello

1. Understanding Gender Differences in Leadership

   Alan, Sule

   Ertac, Seda

   Kubilay, Elif

   Lóránth, Gyöngyi

 We study the evolution of gender differences in the willingness to assume the  decision-maker role in a group, which is a major component of leadership.

 Using data from a large-scale field experiment, we show that while there is  no gender difference in the willingness to make risky decisions on behalf of  a group in a sample of children, a large gap emerges in a sample of  adolescents. In particular, the proportion of girls who exhibit leadership  willingness drops by 39% going from childhood to adolescence. We explore the  possible causes of this drop and find that a significant part of it can be  explained by a dramatic decline in "social confidence", measured by the  willingness to perform a real effort task in public. We show that it is  possible to capture the observed link between public performance and  leadership by estimating a structural model that incorporates costs related  to social concerns. These findings are important in addressing the lower  propensity of females to self-select into high-level positions, which are  typically subject to greater public scrutiny.

   Keywords: leadership; gender; risk taking; social confidence; experiments.

   JEL: C91 C93 D03 I28

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11596&r=soc

2. Trading off between equity and efficiency in dictator and trust games

   Ambec, Stefan

   Garapin, Alexis

   Muller, Laurent

   Rahali, Bilel

 We investigate how people trade off between equity and efficiency, using  variations of tripled dictator and trust games in a lab experiment.

 Equalizing payoffs reduces the return from the tripled investment in the  dictator game. In contrast, in the trust game both equal and maximized  payoffs can be achieved, provided that receiver transfers back half of the  return from investment. We find that subjects sacrifice efficiency for equity  in the dictator game but manage to achieve both in the trust game. Most  subjects equalize payoffs when they are placed behind a veil of ignorance  about their position in the trust game, regardless of their aversion to risk.

 They invest less when they pay to obtain their position as investor but do  not send back less if they pay to be the receiver. Subjects who modify their  investment decision after receiving information about the average investment  in their group tend to move closer to the average.

   Keywords: Trust game, triple dictator game, fairness, efficiency, equity, experiment.

   JEL: C72 C90 D03 D63

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:31118&r=soc

3. Social networks, agricultural innovations, and farm productivity in Ethiopia

   Mekonnen, Daniel Ayalew

   Gerber, Nicolas

   Matz, Julia Anna

 This paper examines the existence of social learning in agriculture in  Ethiopia. We use a ‘random matching within sample’ technique to collect data  on social networks and elicit details of the relationships and information  exchange between network members, complementing the analysis with information  on self-reported networks. We find that, while kinship or membership in  certain groups, informal forms of insurance, or having frequent meetings with  network members are all associated with a higher probability of forming an  information link, none of these are correlated with observed innovative  behavior such as the adoption of row-planting. This may suggest that behavior  is more likely to be affected by the nature of information that passes  through the network, rather than the number of information links. In support  of this, we find that information links that exclusively involve discussions  on farming or business matters are indeed associated with a higher likelihood  of adopting row-planting. We use econometric strategies to isolate social  learning from that of correlated and contextual effects. After controlling  for factors that might otherwise generate spurious correlation, we find a  strong evidence of network externalities in the adoption of row-planting  techniques and also in farm productivity. Our results imply that extension  services and other programs that promote agricultural innovations and seek  yield improvement may benefit from social networks but they may be more  effective if they identify the ‘right’ networks, that is, the ones that  exclusively involve information exchange regarding agriculture. This further  implies that investment in group formation, rather than simply using existing  networks, may be a beneficial strategy.

   Keywords: Social networks, innovations, row planting, agriculture, Ethiopia, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech

    Change/Emerging Technologies, Q1, D02, O33, D83, D62,

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaae16:246436&r=soc

4. Social participation and self-rated psychological health

   Fiorillo, D.

   Lavadera, G.L.

   Nappo, N.

 Although social capital have been hypothesized to have positive influence on  psychological health, few papers found a relationship between social capital  dimensions and psychological wellbeing. This study investigates the  longitudinal relationship between social participation in associations and  self-rated psychological health. The paper uses five waves of the British  Household Panel Survey (BHPS) that follows the same individuals between 1991  and 1995. Ordered logit fixed effect methods have been used to study the  longitudinal link between structural social capital (being member, active,  and both member and active in associations) and self-rated psychological  health assessed by single items of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12)  controlling for age, marital status, household size, number of children,  education, income, economic status, number of visit to GP or family doctor.

 The paper shows that being both member and active in associations is linked  to all “positive†items of self-rated psychological health and to two main  “negative†items of psychological wellbeing. Instead, being only member or  only active in associations have no statistical effect on single items of the  GHQ-12, with few exceptions. Findings highlight the protective role of being  both member and active in associations against poor psychological health  outcomes.

   Keywords: social capital; social participation; psychological health; ordered logit fixed effect; British Household Panel Survey;

   JEL: C23 D71 I10 I31 Z1

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:16/32&r=soc

5. The Role of Social Networks Among Low-Income Fathers: Findings from the PACT Evaluation

   Angela Valdovinos D'Angelo

   Emily Knas

   Pamela Holcomb

   Kathryn Edin

 Findings from the qualitative study of the Parents and Children Together  evaluation offer insight into the social networks of low-income fathers and  the organizational supports they turn to for assistance.

   Keywords: PACT, parents and children together, social networks, low-income

    fathers

   JEL: I

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7f8d3497a27a4b9684ce092fc847c8c3&r=soc

6. Analysis of participation in collective action initiatives for addressing unilateral agri-environmental externalities

   Willy, Daniel Kyalo

   Kuhn, Arnim

   Müller, Karin Holm

 The fact that agriculture is associated with negative external effects on  ecosystems is of great concern. Most of these agri-environmental  externalities are public goods in nature and therefore solving them through  conventional market and regulation tools is challenging. Collective action  has been identified as an option in dealing with externalities emanating from  activities touching on agriculture and the environment especially in  circumstances where markets and government regulation are not effective. In  this paper we assess the potential for agri-environmental cooperation in  dealing with agri-environmental externalities. The study achieves this  objective using cross-sectional household survey data collected from 308  households in the Lake Naivasha basin, Kenya. Results indicate that  non-cooperation is a dominant strategy in the Lake Naivasha basin. The study  also identifies factors that influence the probability of cooperating and  therefore could be catalysts to encourage cooperation. Such factors include  expected private incentives, labour endowments and agricultural  commercialization. Positive perceptions and attitudes, presence of social  sanctions and norms of trust were also found to significantly influence  cooperation. To deal with agri-environmental challenges through cooperation,  policy needs to focus on facilitating selective incentives, awareness  creation and embracing local participation in resource management.

   Keywords: Cooperation, Incentives, Institutions, Lake Basin, Community

    Initiatives, Soil Erosion, Consumer/Household Economics, Environmental

    Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaae16:249268&r=soc

7. Group preferences over social risk: does (group) size matter?

   Morone, Andrea

   Temerario, Tiziana

 In this paper, we first replicated Harrison et al. (2012). Then, we studied  if the group’s size has an impact on group’s risk aversion. In line with  Harrison et al. (2012), our results confirm that no significant differences  occur between individuals and groups risk aversion in three-person group. We  also found that group size does not affect the level of risk aversion.

   Keywords: Preferences; Risk attitude; Laboratory; Majority Rule;

   JEL: C91 C92 D01

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:74949&r=soc

8. Does Migration Cause Extreme Voting?

   Sascha O. Becker (University of Warwick)

   Thiemo Fetzer (Economic geography, market potential, structural gravity, trade costsAbstract: The 2004 accession of 8 Eastern European countries (plus Cyprus and Malta) to the European Union (EU) was overshadowed by feared mass migration of workers from the East due to the EU’s rules on free mobility of labour. While many incumbent EU countries imposed temporary restrictions on labour mobility, the United Kingdom did not impose any such restrictions. We document that following accession at least 1 million people (ca. 3% of the UK working age population) migrated from Eastern Europe to the UK. Places that received large numbers of migrants from Eastern Europe saw a significant increase in anti-European sentiment after 2004, measured by vote shares for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in elections to the European Parliament. We show that the migration wave depressed wages at the lower end of the wage distribution and contributed to increased pressure on public services and housing.)

   Keywords: Political Economy, Migration, Globalization, Voting, EU JEL

    Classification: R23, D72, N44, Z13creation-date: 2016

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:306&r=soc

9. Loyalty, exit, and enforcement: evidence from a Kenya Dairy Cooperative

   Lorenzo Casaburi

   Rocco Macchiavello

 Organizations depend on members' "loyalty" for their success. Studying a  cooperative's attempt to increase deliveries by members, we show that the  threat of sanctions leads to highly heterogeneous response among members.

 Despite the cooperative not actually enforcing the threatened sanctions,  positive effects for some members persist for several months. Other members  "exit," stopping delivering altogether. Among non-compliant members we  document substantial heterogeneity in beliefs about the legitimacy of the  sanctions. This lack of common understanding highlights the role played by  managers in organizations and provides a candidate explanation for lack of  sanctions enforcement documented by Ostrom (1990) and other studies.

   JEL: D83 O13 P13 Q13

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:68218&r=soc

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