In this issue we feature 10 current papers on the theme of social capital, chosen by Fabio Sabatini (Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”):

1. The Effect of Religious Priming in Pro-social and Destructive Behavior By Jipeng Zhang; Elizabeth Brown; Huan Xie
2. How important are Personal Ties, Trust and Tolerance for Life Satisfaction in Europe? By Crowley, Frank; Walsh, Edel
3. Contracting for Counterintelligence: the KGB and Soviet Informers of the 1960s and 1970s By Harrison, Mark
4. Revealing Stereotypes: Evidence from Immigrants in Schools By Alesina, Alberto; Carlana, Michela; La Ferrara, Eliana; Pinotti, Paolo
5. Trust, Investment and Competition: Theory and Evidence from German Car Manufacturers By Giacomo Calzolari; Leonardo Felli; Johannes Koenen; Giancarlo Spagnolo; Konrad O. Stahl
6. Social Connections and the Sorting of Workers to Firms By Eliason, Marcus; Hensvik, Lena; Kramarz, Francis; Nordstrom Skans, Oskar
7. Estimating Peer Effects on Career Choice: A Spatial Multinomial Logit Approach By Li, Bolun; Sickles, Robin C.; Williams, Jenny
8. Appeals to Social Norms and Taxpayer Compliance By James Alm; William D. Schulze; Carrie Von Bose; Jubo Yan
9. Censorship, Family Planning, and the Historical Fertility Transition By Brian Beach; W. Walker Hanlon
10. The Logic of Fear: Populism and Media Coverage of Immigrant Crimes By Mathieu Couttenier; Sophie Hatte; Mathias Thoenig; Stephanos Vlachos

1. The Effect of Religious Priming in Pro-social and Destructive Behavior

   By:	Jipeng Zhang; Elizabeth Brown; Huan Xie
   Abstract:	In this paper, we study the behavioural impact of religious priming by showing participants religious words in a scrambled sentence task before a dictator game and a joy-of-destruction game. We also elicited data on individual religiosity and religious affiliation using a questionnaire. Priming religious words significantly increased pro-social behaviour in the dictator game, and the effect was especially striking among those reporting no religion, atheists and agnostics. The religious prime has no significant effect in mitigating destructive behaviour or own expectations of the other's destruction choice, but both destructive behaviour and expectations correlate positively with the multi-dimensional religiosity measure.
   Keywords:	Religious Priming,Pro-Social Behaviour,Dictator Game,Joy-of-Destruction Game,
   JEL:	D64 C91 Z12
   Date:	2019–04–15
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2019s-06&r=soc

2. How important are Personal Ties, Trust and Tolerance for Life Satisfaction in Europe?

   By:	Crowley, Frank; Walsh, Edel
   Abstract:	Many argue that the rise in populist support in Europe and elsewhere stems from people feeling marginalised, distrustful and generally dissatisfied. Against a backdrop of populism, this paper aims to examine the relationship between social capital and life satisfaction using data on 21,000 individuals from 14 European countries obtained from the Life in Transition Survey (2016). Specifically, we test the empirical significance of a novel social capital-wellbeing conceptual framework that incorporates three key dimensions of personal social capital; (i) structural (personal ties), (ii) cognitive (trust) and (iii) tolerance. This latter aspect is the most novel addition of this research to the theoretical and empirical literature as we argue that tolerance acts as a bridging mechanism between trust and ties in affecting overall wellbeing. Using ordered probit models the paper estimates the effect of social capital on life satisfaction by using an index for aggregate personal social capital, as well as separate indices for structural social capital, cognitive social capital and tolerance. The analysis also examines the interaction effects of social capital with individual and place characteristics of respondents. Among the results we find that strong structural ties with friends and family and being a tolerant, trusting individual improves life satisfaction. Of the social capital indicators, we find that trust in institutions has the largest marginal effect on life satisfaction. Also, interaction effects indicate that social capital could be a key ingredient in overcoming income inequalities, health inequalities and spatial inequalities at the individual level. We conclude that societies that fail to invest in social capital may be more politically unstable or more susceptible to widespread intolerance, distrust and ultimately discontent.
   Keywords:	life satisfaction,social capital,ties,trust,tolerance,Europe
   Date:	2018
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:srercw:srercwp20181&r=soc

3. Contracting for Counterintelligence: the KGB and Soviet Informers of the 1960s and 1970s

   By:	Harrison, Mark (University of Warwick)
   Abstract:	The informer network was a part of the human capital of the communist police state, which had the property of dissolving the freestanding social capital of ordinary citizens. How was it built, and what was the agency of the informers in the process? A few documents from the archives of the Soviet security police allow us to see good practices as the KGB saw them. They show some of the routes by which informers came to the attention of the KGB, their varied motivations, and their social and psychological strengths and weaknesses. The pivot of the process was a contract for counter-intelligence services. The contract itself was partly written, partly verbal or implied, and highly incomplete. Before the contract, searching and due diligence were required to identify potential recruits. After the contract, to turn a recruit into a productive informer involved a further period of training and monitoring, often extending to renegotiation and further investments by both sides in the capabilities of the informer and the relationship of trust with the handler. Trust and deception were two sides of the informer’s coin.
   Keywords:	communism, contracts, social capital, state security, surveillance, trust. JEL Classification: H56, N44, P26
   Date:	2019
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:408&r=soc

4. Revealing Stereotypes: Evidence from Immigrants in Schools

   By:	Alesina, Alberto (Harvard University); Carlana, Michela (Harvard Kennedy School); La Ferrara, Eliana (Bocconi University); Pinotti, Paolo (Bocconi University)
   Abstract:	If individuals become aware of their stereotypes, do they change their behavior? We study this question in the context of teachers' bias in grading immigrants and native children in middle schools. Teachers give lower grades to immigrant students compared to natives who have the same performance on standardized, blindly-graded tests. We then relate differences in grading to teachers' stereotypes, elicited through an Implicit Association Test (IAT). We find that math teachers with stronger stereotypes give lower grades to immigrants compared to natives with the same performance. Literature teachers do not differentially grade immigrants based on their own stereotypes. Finally, we share teachers' own IAT score with them, randomizing the timing of disclosure around the date on which they assign term grades. All teachers informed of their stereotypes before term grading increase grades assigned to immigrants. Revealing stereotypes may be a powerful intervention to decrease discrimination, but it may also induce a reaction from individuals who were not acting in a biased way.
   JEL:	I24 J15
   Date:	2018–11
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp18-040&r=soc

5. Trust, Investment and Competition: Theory and Evidence from German Car Manufacturers

   By:	Giacomo Calzolari; Leonardo Felli; Johannes Koenen; Giancarlo Spagnolo; Konrad O. Stahl
   Abstract:	Based on data from a comprehensive benchmarking study on buyer-supplier relationships in the German automotive industry, we show that more trust in a relationship is associated with higher idiosyncratic investment by suppliers and better part quality|but also with more competition among suppliers. Both associations hold only for parts involving comparatively unsophisticated technology, and evaporate for parts involving sophisticated technology. We rationalize all these observations by means of a relational contracting model of repeated procurement with non-contractible, buyer-specific investments. In relationships involving higher trust, buyers are able to induce higher investment and more intense competition among suppliers|but only when the buyer has the bargaining power. This ability disappears when the bargaining power resides with the supplier(s).
   Keywords:	Relational Contracts, Hold-up, Buyer-Supplier Contracts
   JEL:	D86 L14
   Date:	2019–04
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2019_081&r=soc

6. Social Connections and the Sorting of Workers to Firms

   By:	Eliason, Marcus; Hensvik, Lena; Kramarz, Francis; Nordstrom Skans, Oskar
   Abstract:	The literature on social networks often presumes that job search through (strong) social ties leads to increased inequality by providing privileged individuals with access to more attractive labor market opportunities. We assess this presumption in the context of sorting between AKM-style person and establishment fixed effects. Our rich Swedish register data allow us to measure connections between agents - workers to workers and workers to firms - through parents, children, siblings, spouses, former co-workers and classmates from high school/college, and current neighbors. In clear contrast with the above presumption, there is less sorting inequality among the workers hired through social networks. This outcome results from opposing factors. On the one hand, reinforcing positive sorting, high wage job seekers are shown to have social connections to high-wage workers, and therefore to high-wage firms (because of sorting of workers over firms). Furthermore, connections have a causal impact on the allocation of workers across workplaces â?? employers are much more likely to hire displaced workers to whom they are connected through their employees, in particular if their social ties are strong. On the other hand, attenuating positive sorting, the (causal) impact is much stronger for low-wage firms than it is for high-wage firms, irrespective of the type of worker involved, even conditional on worker fixed effects. The lower degree of sorting among connected hires thus arises because low-wage firms use their (relatively few) connections to high-wage workers to hire workers of a type that they are unable to attract through market channels.
   Keywords:	Hiring; Job Displacement; job search; networks
   JEL:	J23 J30 J60
   Date:	2019–04
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13672&r=soc

7. Estimating Peer Effects on Career Choice: A Spatial Multinomial Logit Approach

   By:	Li, Bolun (Rice U); Sickles, Robin C. (Rice U); Williams, Jenny (U of Melbourne)
   Abstract:	Peers and friends are among the most influential social forces affecting adolescent behavior. In this paper we investigate peer effects on post-high school career decisions and on school choice. We define peers as students who are in the same classes and social clubs and measure peer effects as spatial dependence among them. Utilizing recent development in spatial econometrics, we formalize a spatial multinomial choice model in which individuals are spatially dependent in their preferences. We estimate the model with data from the Texas Higher Education Opportunity Project. We do find that individuals are positively correlated in their career and college preferences and examine how such dependencies impact decisions directly and indirectly as peer effects are allowed to reverberate through the social network in which students reside.
   JEL:	C31 C35
   Date:	2019–01
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:riceco:19-001&r=soc

8. Appeals to Social Norms and Taxpayer Compliance

   By:	James Alm (Tulane University); William D. Schulze (Cornell University); Carrie Von Bose (Fors Marsh Group); Jubo Yan (Cornell University)
   Abstract:	We use laboratory experiments to examine the impact of appeals to social norms on the compliance decisions of individuals. We test the effects of two main types of social norms: "descriptive norms", or the type of behavior that is typical or most frequently enacted, and "injunctive norms", or the type of behavior that "constitutes morally approved and disapproved conduct". In addition, for injunctive norms we introduce approval-framed and disapprovalframed injunctive norm messages. Our results indicate that normative appeals generally have a modest and positive impact on tax compliance, if not always statistically significant. The magnitude of both approval- and disapproval-framed injunctive norm messages is an increase of around 2 percent in reported taxes.
   Keywords:	Tax compliance, social norms, experimental economics.
   JEL:	H2 H26 H3 C91
   Date:	2019–04
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1902&r=soc

9. Censorship, Family Planning, and the Historical Fertility Transition

   By:	Brian Beach; W. Walker Hanlon
   Abstract:	The historical fertility transition is one of the most important events in economic history. This study provides new evidence on the role of information and social norms in this transition. We begin by documenting a causal relationship between the public release of information on the morality of engaging in family planning that resulted from the famous Bradlaugh-Besant trial of 1877 and Britain's subsequent fertility decline. We then show that the release of this information had nearly simultaneous effects among British-origin populations abroad, in Canada, South Africa, Australia and the United States. These findings highlight the importance of information and changing social norms in the historical fertility transition, as well as the role that cultural and linguistic ties played in transmitting these changes around the world.
   JEL:	J1 N31 N33
   Date:	2019–04
   URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25752&r=soc

10. The Logic of Fear: Populism and Media Coverage of Immigrant Crimes

    By:	Mathieu Couttenier (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - Université de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Sophie Hatte (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - Université de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Mathias Thoenig (UNIL - Université de Lausanne, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Stephanos Vlachos (University of Vienna [Vienna])
    Abstract:	We study how news coverage of immigrant criminality impacted municipality-level votes in the November 2009 "minaret ban" referendum in Switzerland. The campaign, successfully led by the populist Swiss People's Party, played aggressively on fears of Muslim immigration and linked Islam with terrorism and violence. We combine an exhaustive violent crime detection dataset with detailed information on crime coverage from 12 newspapers. The data allow us to quantify the extent of pre-vote media bias in the coverage of migrant criminality. We then estimate a theory-based voting equation in the cross-section of municipalities. Exploiting random variations in crime occurrences, we find a first-order, positive effect of news coverage on political support for the minaret ban. Counterfactual simulations show that, under a law forbidding newspapers to disclose a perpetrator's nationality, the vote in favor of the ban would have decreased by 5 percentage points (from 57.6% to 52.6%).
    Keywords:	Media,Violent crime,Immigration,Vote,Populism
    Date:	2019
    URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02095658&r=soc