In this issue we feature 9 current papers on the theme of social capital, chosen by Fabio Sabatini (Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”):

1. Relational Contracts and Trust in a High-Tech Industry Calzolari, G.; Felli, L.; Koenen, J.; Spagnolo, G.; Stahl, K. O.

2. A Commitment Theory of Populism Massimo Morelli; Antonio Nicolò; Paolo Roberti

3. A Costly Commitment: Populism, Government Performance, and the Quality of Bureaucracy Luca Bellodi; Massimo Morelli; Matia Vannoni

4. Guns, pets, and strikes: an experiment on identity and political action Boris Ginzburg; José-Alberto Guerra

5. The Cultural Origins of Family Firms Yuan, Song; Xie, Jian

6. Gender Norms and the Motherhood Employment Gap Moriconi, Simone; Rodríguez-Planas, Núria

7. On the design of public debate in social networks Michel Grabisch; Antoine Mandel; Agnieszka Rusinowska

8. Social incentive factors in interventions promoting sustainable behaviors Phu Nguyen-Van; Anne Stenger; Tuyen Tiet

9. Changes of Social Networks during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Who is affected and what are its Consequences for Psychological Strain? Bertogg, Ariane; Koos, Sebastian

1. Relational Contracts and Trust in a High-Tech Industry Calzolari, G.; Felli, L.; Koenen, J.; Spagnolo, G.; Stahl, K. O. We study how informal buyer-supplier relationships in the German automotive industry affect procurement. Using unique data from a survey focusing on these, we show that more trust, the belief that the trading partner acts to maintain the mutual relationship, is associated with both higher quality of the automotive parts and more competition among suppliers. Yet both effects hold only for parts involving unsophisticated technology, not when technology is sophisticated. We rationalize these findings within a relational contracting model that critically focuses on changes in the bargaining power, due to differences in the costs of switching suppliers. JEL: D86 L14 L62 O34 Keywords: Relational Contracts, Hold-up, Buyer-Supplier Contracts, Bargaining Power Date: 2021–08–02 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camjip:2101&r=&r=soc

2. A Commitment Theory of Populism Massimo Morelli; Antonio Nicolò; Paolo Roberti When voters’ trust in politicians collapses, they demand simple policies that they can easily monitor. Disenchanted citizens therefore prefer committed delegates to politicians who propose themselves as competent policy makers but without a specific policy commitment (trustees). In a two-party competition, the unique asymmetric equilibrium is such that voters with lower interest for the common good select a committed delegate, while those with higher interest for the common good appoint a trustee. In this equilibrium, we show that the committed delegate also chooses all the strategies typically associated with populism in the literature. Hence, this paper puts forward a commitment theory of populism. JEL: D72 D78 Keywords: populism, competence, commitment, information acquisition, interest groups, moral universalism Date: 2021 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9473&r=&r=soc

3. A Costly Commitment: Populism, Government Performance, and the Quality of Bureaucracy Luca Bellodi; Massimo Morelli; Matia Vannoni We study the consequences of populism for government performance and the quality of bureaucracy. When voters lose trust in representative democracy, populists strategically supply unconditional policy commitments that are easier to monitor for voters. When in power, populists implement their policy commitments regardless of financial constraints and expert assessment of the feasibility of their policies, worsening government performance and dismantling resistance from expert bureaucrats. We use novel data on about 8,000 municipalities in Italy, over a period of 20 years, and we estimate the effect of electing a populist mayor with a close-election regression discontinuity design. We find that the election of a populist mayor leads to more debts, a larger share of procurement contracts with cost overruns, higher turnover among top bureaucrats, and a sharp decrease in the percentage of graduate bureaucrats. These results contribute to the literature on populism, government performance, and bureaucratic appointments. Keywords: populism, government performance, bureaucracy, turnover Date: 2021 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9470&r=&r=soc

4. Guns, pets, and strikes: an experiment on identity and political action Boris Ginzburg; José-Alberto Guerra We study the implications of participation in political collective action on identity and on interpersonal interactions using a laboratory experiment. We offer subjects the possibility to sign an online petition, which was either related to animal rights or the right to bear firearms. Before and after the petition, we measure subjects' altruism and willingness to trust by asking them to play a dictator game and a trust game in pairs. The results show that there is considerably more altruism and more trust when both subjects had signed the petition than when one or both had not signed. The same behaviour is observed when we analyse high-cost political participation, namely, joining a street protest. This suggests that the experience of common participation in political collective action creates an identity that produces in-group favouritism. These results also suggest a reason why individuals choose to participate in political action despite private costs and a low probability of affecting the outcome: participation creates private benefits in subsequent interactions with fellow participants. JEL: C91 D64 D79 D91 Keywords: political identity, collective action, social preferences, laboratory experiment, petitions, street protests Date: 2021–12–15 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:019932&r=&r=soc

5. The Cultural Origins of Family Firms Yuan, Song; Xie, Jian What determines the prevalence of family firms? In this project, we investigate the role of historical family culture in the spatial distribution of family firms. Using detailed firm-level data from China, we find that there is a larger share of family firms in regions with a stronger historical family culture, as measured by genealogy density. The results are further confirmed by an instrumental variable approach and the nearest neighbor matching method. Examining the mechanisms, we find that entrepreneurs in regions with a stronger historical family culture: i) tend to have family members engage more in firms; ii) are more likely to raise initial capital from family members; iii) are more willing to pass on the firms to their children. Historical family culture predicts better firm performance due to a lower leverage ratio. JEL: D02 D2 G3 L2 M1 Z1 Keywords: Family Culture; Family Firms; Genealogy; Cultural Origins; Firm Performance Date: 2021–12 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:111315&r=&r=soc

6. Gender Norms and the Motherhood Employment Gap Moriconi, Simone (IÉSEG School of Management); Rodríguez-Planas, Núria (Queens College, CUNY) Using individual-level data from the European Social Survey, we study the relevance of gender norms in accounting for the motherhood employment gap across 186 European NUTS2 regions (over 29 countries) for the 2002-2016 period. The gender norm variable is taken from a question on whether "men should have more right to a job than women when jobs are scarce" and represents the average extent of disagreement (on a scale 1 to 5) of women belonging to the "grandmothers" cohort. We address the potential endogeneity of our gender norms measure with an index of the degree of reproductive health liberalization when grandmothers were 20 years old. We also account for the endogeneity of motherhood with the level of reproductive health liberalization when mothers were 20 years old. We find a robust positive association between progressive beliefs among the grandmothers' cohort and mothers' likelihood to work while having a small child (0 to 5 years old) relative to similar women without children. No similar association is found among men. Our analysis underscores the role of gender norms and maternal employment, suggesting that non-traditional gender norms mediate on the employment gender gap mainly via motherhood. JEL: J16 J22 Keywords: gender norms, motherhood employment gap, instrumenting for motherhood Date: 2021–11 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14898&r=&r=soc

7. On the design of public debate in social networks Michel Grabisch (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics); Antoine Mandel (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics); Agnieszka Rusinowska (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, CNRS, Paris School of Economics) We propose a model of the joint evolution of opinions and social relationships in a setting where social influence decays over time. The dynamics are based on bounded confidence: social connections between individuals with distant opinions are severed while new connections are formed between individuals with similar opinions. Our model naturally gives raise to strong diversity, i.e., the persistence of heterogeneous opinions in connected societies, a phenomenon that most existing models fail to capture. the intensity of social interactions is the key parameter that governs the dynamics. First, it determines the asymptotic distributionn of opinions. In particular, increasing the intensity of social interactions brings society closer to consensus. Second, it determines the risk of polariztion, which is shown to increase with the intensity of social interactions. Our results allow to frame the problem of the design of public debates in a formal setting. We hence characterize the optimal strategy for a social planner who controls the intensity of the public debate and thus faces a trade-off between the pursuit of social consensus and the risk of polarization. We also consider applications to political campaigning and show that both minority and majority candidates can have incentives to lead society towards polarization JEL: D85 C65 D83 Keywords: opinion dynamics; network formation; network fragility; polarization; institution design; political campaign Date: 2022–01 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:22001&r=&r=soc

8. Social incentive factors in interventions promoting sustainable behaviors Phu Nguyen-Van (EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, TIMAS, Thang Long University); Anne Stenger (BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Tuyen Tiet (BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, University of Management and Technology [Hanoi]) Based on a meta-analysis, this paper highlights the strength and relevance of several social incentive factors concerning pro-environmental behaviors, including social influence, network factors (like network size, network connection and leadership), trust in others, and trust in institutions. Firstly, our results suggest that social influence is necessary for the emergence of pro-environmental behaviors. More specifically, an internal social influence (i.e., motivating people to change their perceptions and attitudes) is essential to promote pro-environmental behaviors. Secondly, network connection encourages pro-environmental behaviors, meaning that the effectiveness of a conservation policy can be improved if connections among individuals are increased. Finally, trust in institutions can dictate individual behaviors to shape policy design and generate desired policy outcomes. Keywords: Trust, Social incentive, Social influence, Pro-environmental behavior, Network, Meta-analysis Date: 2021–12–08 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03472060&r=&r=soc

9. Changes of Social Networks during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Who is affected and what are its Consequences for Psychological Strain? Bertogg, Ariane; Koos, Sebastian Contact restrictions and distancing measures are among the most effective non-pharmaceutical measures to stop the spread of the SARS-CoV2 virus. Yet, research has only begun to understand the wider social consequences of these interventions. This study investigates how individuals' social networks have changed since the outbreak of the pandemic and how these changes relate to psychological strain. Based on an online survey of the German adult population, four types of change are distinguished: loss, gain, and intensification of ties, as well as pandemic-related conflicts. One in two respondents has experienced at least one of these four changes. Loss is more frequently reported than gain of ties, and intensification occurred more frequently than conflicts. Loss of ties and conflicts are furthermore associated with higher levels of psychological strain. JEL: L14 I31 Keywords: Network Change,Social Ties,Health Risks,Covid-19 Date: 2021 URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cexwps:07&r=&r=soc

This nep-soc issue is ©2022 by Fabio Sabatini. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice. 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 at nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected. NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.