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

Access to full contents may be restricted. To subscribe/unsubscribe follow this link: http://lists.repec.org/mailman/options.

1. Assam riots in India in 1980s: Examining the behavioural outcomes - Asad Islam; Ratul Mahanta
2. Testing for Peer Effects Using Genetic Data - John Cawley; Euna Han; Jiyoon (June) Kim; Edward C. Norton
3. Fake News in Social Networks - Christoph Aymanns; Jakob Foerster; Co-Pierre Georg
4. Collective Action, White Flight, and the Origins of Formal Segregation Laws - Werner Troesken; Randall Walsh
5. Divided We Stand: Immigration Attitudes, Identity, and Subjective Well-Being - Heinz Welsch; Jan Kuehling
6. Co-operation, institutional quality and management outcome in community-based micro hydro schemes in Kenya - Mary Karumba; Edwin Muchapondwa
7. God insures those who pay?Formal insurance and religious offerings in Ghana - Auriol, Emmanuelle; Lassebie, Julie; Panin, Amma; Raiber, Eva; Seabright, Paul
8. Economic Origins of Cultural Norms: The Case of Animal Husbandry and Bastardy - Christoph Eder; Martin Halla

1. Assam riots in India in 1980s: Examining the behavioural outcomes

   Asad Islam

   Ratul Mahanta

 We conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment to examine the long-term effects of  riots in Assam in India on a range of economic and behavioural outcomes. We  find that individuals who live in the villages that have been heavily and  moderately affected by riots are more trustworthy, more likely to be  competitive and have higher levels of self-confidence under competitive  situations. They exhibit more anti-social preferences but are less likely to  be dishonest than individuals in the unaffected areas. The estimates are  stronger and more often statistically significant when considering heavily  affected areas than moderately affected areas - suggesting stronger influence  on those who were directly exposed to or experienced the riots. Using survey  measures, we observe that individuals in areas that were heavily exposed to  riots have higher levels of trust, higher tendency toward altruism, and lower  memory capacity.

   Keywords: riot, Assam, risk, trust, field experiments

   JEL: C91 C93 D74 D81 O12

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qut:qubewp:wp052&r=soc

2. Testing for Peer Effects Using Genetic Data

   John Cawley

   Euna Han

   Jiyoon (June) Kim

   Edward C. Norton

 Estimating peer effects is notoriously difficult because of the reflection  problem and the endogeneity of peer group formation. This paper tests for  peer effects in obesity in a novel way that addresses these challenges. It  addresses the reflection problem by using the alter’s genetic risk score for  obesity, which is a significant predictor of obesity, is determined prior to  birth, and cannot be affected by the behavior of others. It addresses the  endogeneity of peer group formation by examining peers who are not

 self-selected: full siblings. Using data from the National Longitudinal  Survey of Adolescent Health, we find evidence of positive peer effects in  weight and obesity; having a sibling with a high genetic predisposition  raises one’s risk of obesity, even controlling for one’s own genetic  predisposition to obesity. Implications of the findings include that peer  effects may be an explanation for continued worldwide increases in weight,  and that, because of social multipliers, the cost-effectiveness of obesity  treatment and prevention programs may have been underestimated.

   JEL: D1 I1 I12 I18 J1 Z18

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23719&r=soc

3. Fake News in Social Networks

   Christoph Aymanns

   Jakob Foerster

   Co-Pierre Georg

 We model the spread of news as a social learning game on a network. Agents  can either endorse or oppose a claim made in a piece of news, which itself  may be either true or false. Agents base their decision on a private signal  and their neighbors' past actions. Given these inputs, agents follow  strategies derived via multi-agent deep reinforcement learning and receive  utility from acting in accordance with the veracity of claims. Our framework  yields strategies with agent utility close to a theoretical, Bayes optimal  benchmark, while remaining flexible to model re-specification. Optimized  strategies allow agents to correctly identify most false claims, when all  agents receive unbiased private signals. However, an adversary's attempt to  spread fake news by targeting a subset of agents with a biased private signal  can be successful. Even more so when the adversary has information about  agents' network position or private signal. When agents are aware of the  presence of an adversary they re-optimize their strategies in the training  stage and the adversary's attack is less effective. Hence, exposing agents to  the possibility of fake news can be an effective way to curtail the spread of  fake news in social networks. Our results also highlight that information  about the users' private beliefs and their social network structure can be  extremely valuable to adversaries and should be well protected.

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1708.06233&r=soc

4. Collective Action, White Flight, and the Origins of Formal Segregation Laws

   Werner Troesken

   Randall Walsh

 This paper develops and tests a simple model to explain the origins of  municipal segregation ordinances. Passed by cities between 1909 and 1917,  these ordinances prohibited members of the majority racial group on a given  city block from selling or renting property to members of another racial  group. Our results suggest that prior to these laws cities had created and  sustained residential segregation through private norms and vigilante  activity. Only when these private arrangements began to break down during the  early 1900s did whites start lobbying municipal governments for segregation  ordinances.

   JEL: H1 K11 N32 N92 R14 R31

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23691&r=soc

5. Divided We Stand: Immigration Attitudes, Identity, and Subjective Well-Being

   Heinz Welsch (University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics)

   Jan Kuehling (University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics A)

 : Immigration is a crucial issue in contemporary politics, and attitudes  towards immigration are highly dispersed in many countries. We treat  individuals’ immigration friendliness (IF) as a feature of their self-image  or identity and hypothesize that, similar to other pro-social self-images,  greater immigration friendliness is associated with greater subjective  well-being (SWB). We further hypothesize that greater disparity of  immigration attitudes yields social antagonism and as such is associated with  less SWB. Finally, we hypothesize that greater disparity of immigration  attitudes permits immigration-friendly individuals to differentiate  themselves from others, thus raising the SWB benefit of holding an  immigration-friendly self- image. Using 225,356 observations from 35 European  countries, 2002-2015, we find evidence consistent with the hypotheses stated  above. A 1-standard-deviation (SD) increase in IF is associated with an  increase in 11-point life satisfaction (LS) by 0.15 to 0.32 points, whereas a  1-SD increase in attitude disparity is associated with a decrease in LS by

 0.05 to 0.11 points.

   Keywords: immigration; attitudes; identity; antagonism; social conflict; subjective well-being

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:old:dpaper:401&r=soc

6. Co-operation, institutional quality and management outcome in community-based micro hydro schemes in Kenya

   Mary Karumba

   Edwin Muchapondwa

 Community based micro hydro grids in developing countries have  characteristics like those of man-made common pool resources like irrigation  commons. While empirical testing of the conditions that enable collective  participation and subsequent successful self-governance within irrigation  commons and other CPRs is widely studied, there is very limited analysis of  enabling conditions for energy commons. This study contributes towards the  study of CPR management by identifying individual characteristics that  influence their participation levels in such energy commons, and secondly  interrogates the role of institutional arrangements and other relevant  conditions in predicting management outcome in self-governed micro hydro  schemes in Kenya. The findings indicate that more education; trust for peers  and higher allowance for electricity increase cooperation among users.

 Additional relevant conditions such as higher installed capacity, bigger  groups and having clearly defined boundary of users also seem to increase the  chances of success in self-governed micro hydro schemes in this study.

   Keywords: Collective action, Participation; Institutions, Micro hydro schemes

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:697&r=soc

7. God insures those who pay?Formal insurance and religious offerings in Ghana

   Auriol, Emmanuelle

   Lassebie, Julie

   Panin, Amma

   Raiber, Eva

   Seabright, Paul

 This paper presents experimental evidence exploring how insurance might be a  motive for religious donations by members of a Pentecostal church in Ghana.

 We ran- domize enrollment into a commercially available funeral insurance  policy and let church members allocate money between themselves and a set of  religious goods in a series of dictator games with significant stakes.

 Members enrolled in insurance give significantly less money to their own  churches. At the same time, enrollment in insurance reduces giving towards  other spiritual goods. We set up a model exploring different channels of  religious based insurance. The implications of the model and the results of  the dictator games suggest that adherents perceive the church as a source of  insurance and that this insurance is derived from beliefs in an  interventionist God. Survey results suggest that community-based material  insurance is also important and we hypothesize that these two insurance  channels exist in parallel.

   Keywords: economics of religion; informal insurance; charitable giving

   JEL: D14 G22 O12 O17

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:31915&r=soc

8. Economic Origins of Cultural Norms: The Case of Animal Husbandry and Bastardy

   Christoph Eder

   Martin Halla

 This paper explores the historical origins of the cultural norm regarding  illegitimacy (formerly known as bastardy). We test the hypothesis that  traditional agricultural production structures influenced the historical  illegitimacy ratio, and have had a lasting effect until today. Based on data  from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and modern Austria, we show that regions  that focused on animal husbandry (as compared to crop farming) had  significantly higher illegitimacy ratios in the past, and female descendants  of these societies are still more likely to approve illegitimacy and give  birth outside of marriage today. To establish causality, we exploit, within  an IV approach, variation in the local agricultural suitability, which  determined the historical dominance of animal husbandry. Since differences in  the agricultural production structure are completely obsolete in today's  economy, we suggest interpreting the persistence in revealed and stated  preferences as a cultural norm. Complementary evidence from an  `epidemiological approach' suggests that this norm is passed down through  generations, and the family is the most important transmission channel. Our  findings point to a more general phenomenon that cultural norms can be shaped  by economic conditions, and may persist, even if economic conditions become  irrelevant.

   Keywords: Cultural norms, persistence, animal husbandry, illegitimacy

   JEL: Z1 A13 J12 J13 J43 N33

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2017-14&r=soc

This nep-soc issue comes without any express or implied warranty. You may contact the editor by reply to this mail.

General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org.

For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at < director @ nep point repec point org >.

The infrastructure of NEP is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance, Massey University, New Zealand.