In this issue we feature 7 current papers on the theme of social capital:

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In this issue we have:

1. Redistribution and Group Participation: Comparative Experimental Evidence from Africa and the UK - Marcel Fafchamps; Ruth Vargas Hill
2. Job loss and social capital: the role of family, friends and wider support networks - Gush, Karon; Scott, James; Laurie, Heather
3. Cultural Norms and Identity in Coordination Games - Jo Laban Peryman; David Kelsey
4. Boundedly Rational Opinion Dynamics in Social Networks: Does Indegree Matter? Pietro Battiston; Luca Stanca
5. Running head: Cooperation, competition and group decision-making - Claudia Toma; Fabrizio Butera
6. Networks and Manufacturing Firms in Africa: Results from a Randomized Field Experiment - Marcel Fafchamps; Simon R. Quinn
7. Social capital and views on suicide via the internet: a study using survey data - Yamamura, Eiji

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1. Redistribution and Group Participation: Comparative Experimental Evidence from Africa and the UK
   Marcel Fafchamps
   Ruth Vargas Hill
 We design an original laboratory experiment to investigate whether  redistributive actions hinder the formation of Pareto-improving groups. We  test, in an anonymous setting with no feedback, whether people choose to  destroy or steal the endowment of others and whether they choose to give to  others, when granted the option. We then test whether subjects join a group  that increases their endowment but exposes them to redistribution. We conduct  the experiment in three very different settings with a priori different norms  of pro-social behavior: a university town in the UK, the largest urban slum  in Kenya, and rural Uganda. We find a lot of commonality but also large  differences between sites. UK subjects behave in a more selfish and strategic  way -- giving less, stealing more. Kenyan and Ugandan subjects behave in a  more altruistic and less strategic manner. However, pro-social norms are not  always predictive of joining behavior. African subjects are less likely to  join a group when destruction or stealing is permitted. It is as if they are  less trusting even though they are more trustworthy. These findings  contradict the view that African current underdevelopment is due to a failure  of generalized morality.
   JEL: D03 O17
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21127&r=soc

2. Job loss and social capital: the role of family, friends and wider support networks
   Gush, Karon
   Scott, James
   Laurie, Heather
 Finding a new job is not the only problem the unemployed face. How to manage  the loss of income, status and identity can also be a serious consideration  for those in between jobs. In-depth qualitative interviews reveal that  family, friends and wider networks are important mainstays in helping  jobseekers back into work but in different ways and for a variety of reasons.
 By examining the job seeking strategies in terms of drawing on (a) family  connections and (b) friends and wider social networks this investigation  sheds some light on the extent to which social connectedness matters for  jobseekers in contemporary Britain.
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2015-07&r=soc

3. Cultural Norms and Identity in Coordination Games
   Jo Laban Peryman (RMIT University, Melbourne)
   David Kelsey (Department of Economics, University of Exeter)  We run experiments with a stag hunt and bargaining coordination game. Using a  between-subjects design, we vary the identity of the opponent between someone  of the same culture or a different culture. The idea is to see whether  cultural norms or identity play a part in coordination decisions. We compare  the responses of British and Asian students at the University of Exeter and  show the cultural identity of the opponent by physical appearance. The  players appear to use cultural stereotypes to predict behaviour, especially  in the bargaining game which may require more strategic thought than the stag  hunt game. In particular, the British act in way that indicates they believe  the Asians will behave more cautiously than other British. According to our  results, the stereotype of Asians being cautious is misleading.
   Keywords: culture,identity, norms, coordination, bargaining
   JEL: C29 C71 C72 Z13
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exe:wpaper:1505&r=soc

4. Boundedly Rational Opinion Dynamics in Social Networks: Does Indegree Matter?
   Pietro Battiston
   Luca Stanca
 This paper investigates opinion dynamics and social in uence in directed  communication networks. We study the theoretical properties of a boundedly  rational model of opinion formation in which individuals aggregate the  information they receive from their neighbors by using weights that are a  function of neighbors' indegree. We then present the results of a laboratory  experiment explicitly designed to test the causal effect of indegree on  social in uence. We find that the social influence of an agent is positively  affected by the number of individuals she listens to. When forming their  opinions, agents take into account the structure of their communication  network, although only to a limited extent.
   Keywords: Social Networks, Learning, Social Influence, Bounded Rationality
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2015/11&r=soc

5. Running head: Cooperation, competition and group decision-making
   Claudia Toma
   Fabrizio Butera
 Information processing in groups has long been seen as a cooperative process.
 In contrast with this assumption, group members were rarely found to behave
 cooperatively: They withhold unshared information and stick to initial  incorrect decisions. In the present article, we examined how group members’
 cooperative and competitive motives impact on group information processing  and propose that information sharing and use in groups could be seen as  strategic behaviour. We reviewed the latest developments in the literature  investigating different forms of strategic information processing and their  underlying mechanisms. This review suggests that explicit cooperative goals  are needed for effective group decisionmaking.
   Keywords: coinformation sharing; information processing; strategic
    behavior; cooperation; social motives
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/199127&r=soc

6. Networks and Manufacturing Firms in Africa: Results from a Randomized Field Experiment
   Marcel Fafchamps
   Simon R. Quinn
 We run a novel field experiment to link managers of African manufacturing  firms. The experiment features exogenous link formation, exogenous seeding of  information, and exogenous assignment to treatment and placebo. We study the  impact of the experiment on firm business practices outside of the lab. We  find that the experiment successfully created new variation in social  networks. We find significant diffusion of business practices only in terms  of VAT registration and having a bank current account. This diffusion is a  combination of diffusion of innovation and simple imitation. At the time of  our experiment, all three studied countries were undergoing large changes in  their VAT legislation.
   JEL: D22 L26 O33
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21132&r=soc

7. Social capital and views on suicide via the internet: a study using survey data
   Yamamura, Eiji
 Based on data from surveys conducted in Japan, this paper attempts to examine  the effect of social capital on individuals’ views about suicide as conveyed  via the Internet. Furthermore, this paper compared the effects of social  capital accumulated in respondents’ residential areas at 15 years of age and  in current residential areas. Empirical results show that 15-year-old  individuals residing in areas with high social capital are unlikely to  understand why people would search the Internet for a companion with whom to  commit suicide. However, such a relation is not observed between social  capital in the current residential area and views on suicide. This indicates  that interpersonal relationships in childhood reduce the externality of  suicidal thoughts conveyed via the Internet.
   Keywords: Views on suicide; Social capital; Childhood; Internet;
    Externality.
   JEL: I18 I31 Z13 Z18
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:64071&r=soc

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