In this issue we feature 7 current papers on the theme of social capital, chosen by Fabio Sabatini (Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”):

1. (Successful) Democracies Breed Their Own Support Acemoglu, Daron; Ajzenman, Nicolas; Aksoy, Cevat Giray; Fiszbein, Martin; Molina, Carlos

2. Poverty, social networks, and clientelism Nico Ravanilla; Allen Hicken

3. The effects of incentives, social norms, and employees' values on work performance Roos, Michael W. M.; Reale, Jessica; Banning, Frederik

4. Local government fiscal policy, social capital and electoral payoff: evidence across Italian municipalities Batinti, Alberto; Andriani, Luca; Filippetti, Andrea

5. Should I scan my face? The influence of perceived value and trust on Chinese users' intention to use facial recognition payment Hu, Bo; Liu, Yu-li; Yan, Wenjia

6. Double-edged sword: Persistent effects of Communism on life satisfaction Otrachshenko, Vladimir; Nikolova, Milena; Popova, Olga

7. Ingroup Bias with Multiple Identities: The Case of Religion and Attitudes Towards Government Size Sgroi, Daniel; Yeo, Jonathan; Zhuo, Shi

1. (Successful) Democracies Breed Their Own Support Acemoglu, Daron (MIT); Ajzenman, Nicolas (São Paulo School of Economics-FGV); Aksoy, Cevat Giray (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development); Fiszbein, Martin (Boston University); Molina, Carlos (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Using large-scale survey data covering more than 110 countries and exploiting within-country variation across cohorts and surveys, we show that individuals with longer exposure to democracy display stronger support for democratic institutions. We bolster these baseline findings using an instrumental-variables strategy exploiting regional democratization waves and focusing on immigrants' exposure to democracy before migration. In all cases, the timing and nature of the effects are consistent with a causal interpretation. We also establish that democracies breed their own support only when they are successful: all of the effects we estimate work through exposure to democracies that are successful in providing economic growth, peace and political stability, and public goods. JEL: P16 Keywords: democracy, economic growth, institutions, support for democracy, values Date: 2021–08 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14691&r=&r=soc

2. Poverty, social networks, and clientelism Nico Ravanilla; Allen Hicken Why are the poor susceptible to clientelism, and what factors shield them from the influence of vote buying? We explore the role of both formal and informal social networks in shaping the likelihood of being targeted with private inducements. We argue that when the poor lack access to formal social networks, they become increasingly reliant on vote buying channelled through informal networks. To test our theory, we build the informal, family-based network linkages between voters and local politicians spanning a city in the Philippines. Keywords: Social networks, Poor, vote-buying, Clientelism, Voting behaviour, Philippines Date: 2021 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-144&r=&r=soc

3. The effects of incentives, social norms, and employees' values on work performance Roos, Michael W. M.; Reale, Jessica; Banning, Frederik This agent-based model contributes to a theory of corporate culture in which company performance and employees' behaviour result from the interaction between financial incentives, motivational factors and endogenous social norms. Employees' personal values are the main drivers of behaviour. They shape agents' decisions about how much of their working time to devote to individual tasks, cooperative, and shirking activities. The model incorporates two aspects of the management style, analysed both in isolation and combination: (i) monitoring efforts affecting intrinsic motivation, i.e. the firm is either trusting or controlling, and (ii) remuneration schemes affecting extrinsic motivation, i.e. individual or group rewards. The simulations show that financial incentives can (i) lead to inefficient levels of cooperation, and (ii) reinforce value-driven behaviours, amplified by emergent social norms. The company achieves the highest output with a flat wage and a trusting management. Employees that value self-direction highly are pivotal, since they are strongly (de-)motivated by the management style. JEL: D24 D91 J22 M52 M54 Z13 Keywords: Values,social norms,remuneration systems,intrinsic motivation,monitoring,agent-based modelling Date: 2021 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:917&r=&r=soc

4. Local government fiscal policy, social capital and electoral payoff: evidence across Italian municipalities Batinti, Alberto; Andriani, Luca; Filippetti, Andrea Citizens’ attitudes and reactions to policymakers’ decisions depend on several factors, including informal institutions. The novelty of this paper is to use social capital as a moderator factor to shed light on the relationship between fiscal policies and electoral outcomes. We investigate this relationship using a sample of 6,000 Italian municipalities over the period 2003-2012 and use a Conditional Logit Matching model comparing incumbents to challengers’ characteristics within each election. We find that social capital increases the odds of the re-election of incumbent mayors who adopted a local fiscal policy more oriented towards capital investment (versus current expenditure) and towards property tax (versus income surcharge). This suggests that social capital encourages governmental functions and public policies improving long-term economic commitments, institutional transparency, and accountability. It also shows that decentralization works relatively better with social capital. JEL: E6 Keywords: social capital; municipal elections; local government fiscal policies Date: 2019–11–01 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:100438&r=&r=soc

5. Should I scan my face? The influence of perceived value and trust on Chinese users' intention to use facial recognition payment Hu, Bo; Liu, Yu-li; Yan, Wenjia Drawing on the perspectives of perceived value and trust, this study examines the factors affecting Chinese users' intention to use facial recognition payment (FRP) service. Data collected from 1200 Chinese mobile payment users is analyzed by using structural equation modelling. Results show that convenience positively influences perceived value; privacy risk and financial risk negatively influence perceived value. Only privacy risk and financial risk can significantly affect trust in FRP. Novelty has no significant effect on perceived value and trust. It is also found that perceived value positively influences trust, and both perceived value and trust are factors positively affecting intention to use FRP. Information sensitivity moderates the relationship between perceived value and intention to use FRP. Theoretical implications and practical implications are discussed. Keywords: facial recognition payment,perceived value,trust,intention to use Date: 2021 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itsb21:238028&r=&r=soc

6. Double-edged sword: Persistent effects of Communism on life satisfaction Otrachshenko, Vladimir; Nikolova, Milena; Popova, Olga Communism was a two-edged sword for the trustees of the former regime. Communist party members and their relatives enjoyed status and privileges, while secret police informants were often coerced to work clandestinely and gather compromising materials about friends, colleagues, and neighbors. We examine the long-term consequences of such connections to the communist regime for life satisfaction in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. We also calculate a monetary equivalent of those effects and empirically test mechanisms. The findings underscore that past communist regime connections have a persistent but differential effect on life satisfaction. JEL: D60 I31 N00 P26 P36 P52 Keywords: Communist regime,historical legacy,Eastern Europe,former Soviet Union,life satisfaction,elite networks,Communist party,informants Date: 2021 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:927&r=&r=soc

7. Ingroup Bias with Multiple Identities: The Case of Religion and Attitudes Towards Government Size Sgroi, Daniel (University of Warwick); Yeo, Jonathan (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore); Zhuo, Shi (University of Warwick) Group identity is known to exert a powerful socio-psychological influence on behaviour but to date has been largely explored as a uni-dimensional phenomenon. We consider the role of multiple dimensions of identity, asking what might happen to ingroup and outgroup perceptions and the resulting implications for cooperation. Carefully selecting two politically charged identity dimensions documented to have similar strength and to be largely orthogonal (religious belief and views about government size), we find that priming individuals to consider both dimensions rather than one has a noticeable effect on behaviour. Moving from one to two dimensions can produce a significant increase in ingroup allocations at the expense of fairness to outgroup individuals, although the effect varies as we switch from primarily considering religion to government size. Evidence suggests that the heterogeneity of such effects is related to the degree of "harmony" between groups in the dimensions concerned. JEL: D91 C91 Keywords: group identity, multiple identities, religion, government size, experiment, behavioural economics Date: 2021–09 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14714&r=&r=soc

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