In this issue we feature 11 current papers on the theme of social capital:

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In this issue we have:

1.  Can social interactions change the brain? Social network effects on obesity and related co-morbidities - Henning, Christian H.C.A.; Zarnekow, Nana; Laudes, Matthias
2.  Nice Neighborhood or Network Capital: What drives Residential Quality of Life? Zarnekow, Nana; Henning, Christian H.C.A.
3.  Some determinants of trust formation and pro social behaviours in investment games: An experimental study - Di Bartolomeo Giovanni; Papa Stefano
4.  Conditional Cooperation and Betrayal Aversion - Robin Cubitt; Simon Gaechter; Simone Quercia
5.  When Do Punishment Institutions Work? Patrick Aquino; Robert S. Gazzale; Sarah Jacobson
6.  Feedback, Social Nudges, and Energy Conservation - Hunter, Elizabeth; Crago, Christine; Spraggon, John
7.  Promoting Peru’s Smallholder Farmer’s Access to Profitable Markets: The Effects of Social Networks and Farmer Training - Salas, Vania B.; Fan, Qin
8.  Precautionary Intentions and Risk Perceptions: Empirical Evidence from the Victims of Typhoon Morakot - Chou, Wan-Jung; Huang, Yu-Chia; Chang, Ching-Cheng
9.  Trust in the LEADER approach: the case study of the Veneto region in Italy - Pisani, Elena; Franceschetti, G.; Secco, L.; Da Re, R.
10. Does Social Capital Explain Small Business Resilience? A Panel Data  Analysis Post-Katrina - Torres, Ariana P.; Marshall, Maria I.
11. Getting a Leg Up or Pulling it Down? Interpersonal Comparisons and Destructive Actions: Experimental Evidence from Bolivia - Zeballos, Eliana

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 1. Can social interactions change the brain? Social network effects on obesity and related co-morbidities

    Henning, Christian H.C.A.

    Zarnekow, Nana

    Laudes, Matthias

 The aim of the present study was to examine to what extend different social  network mechanisms are factors explaining the spread of obesity and obesity  associated co-morbidities. Based on our theoretical framework we derive  testable hypotheses regarding an indirect and direct impact of social  networks on EGO’s BMI and insulin resistance. To test our hypotheses we  undertook a clinical and social survey including a sample of 1397 probands.

 Collected data include anthropometric and biochemical measures as well as  health attitudes, behavioural and socio-economic variables and social network  data. We used nonparametric and parametric regression models to analyse  whether EGO’s BMI and insulin resistance are determined by EGO’s social  network characteristics controlling for EGO’s individual characteristics. We  found significant PSM and GPS treatment effects for high sport activities, a  frequent diet behaviour (p=0.000) of EGO’s social peer group. Since our  regression analyses results that obesity is the main determinant of the  HOMA-index this established a significant indirect network effect on insulin  resistance. We also found significant direct social network effects on EGO’s  insulin resistance, i.e. controlling for EGO’s obesity status frequent diet  behaviour (p=0.033) and sport activities (p=0.041) of EGO’s peer group  decreases EGO’s HOMA index. Network phenomena appear not only to be relevant  for the spread of obesity, but also for the spread of associated  co-morbidities.

    Keywords: Social network, obesity, peer group effects, generalized

     matching method, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics

     and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205632&r=soc

 2. Nice Neighborhood or Network Capital: What drives Residential Quality of Life?

    Zarnekow, Nana

    Henning, Christian H.C.A.

    Keywords: social network, quality of life, latent class estimation,

     Community/Rural/Urban Development, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205637&r=soc

 3. Some determinants of trust formation and pro social behaviours in investment games: An experimental study

    Di Bartolomeo Giovanni

    Papa Stefano

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ter:wpaper:0112&r=soc

 4. Conditional Cooperation and Betrayal Aversion

    Robin Cubitt (Department of Economics, University of Nottingham)

    Simon Gaechter (Department of Economics, University of Nottingham)

    Simone Quercia (University of Bonn, Institute for Applied Microeconomics)  We investigate whether there is a link between conditional cooperation and  betrayal aversion. We use a public goods game to classify subjects by type of  contribution preference and by belief about the contributions of others; and  we measure betrayal aversion for different categories of subject. We find  that, among conditional cooperators, only those who expect others to  contribute little to the public good are significantly betrayal averse, while  there is no evidence of betrayal aversion for those who expect substantial  contributions by others. This is consistent with their social risk taking in  public goods games, as the pessimistic conditional cooperators tend to avoid  contribution to avoid exploitation, whereas the optimistic ones typically  contribute to the public good and thus take the social risk of being  exploited.

    Keywords: public goods game, conditional cooperation, trust, betrayal

     aversion, exploitation aversion, free riding, experiments

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcdx:2015-14&r=soc

 5. When Do Punishment Institutions Work?

    Patrick Aquino (Harvard Graduate School of Education)

    Robert S. Gazzale (University of Toronto)

    Sarah Jacobson (Williams College)

 The public good literature has often found that a punishment option increases  cooperation while the gift exchange literature has found the opposite. We use  a novel experiment to seek the cause of this difference. We begin with a gift  exchange game with punishment as it has typically been implemented therein,  and modify two features to replicate conditions more like those usually used  in a public good game: punishment's power and its timing (whether the  punisher publicly pre-commits to punishment before the punishee decides or  acts after the punishee). We replicate the result that punishment  institutions as they have typically been implemented in gift exchange games  "backfire," but show that this bad outcome disappears if punishment is more  powerful. We find three reasons that punishment decreases cooperation: lower  wages are offered (a stick is substituted for a carrot); punishment is poorly  chosen by many punishers; and some agents spitefully choose low cooperation  in retribution against a punishing principal, but only if the punishment is  weak so that spite is relatively cheap. We find that punishment that is not  publicly pre-committed to is not effective in this game, even though this  kind of punishment is similar to that used in many public good games in the  literature where punishment does seem to increase cooperation. The only  punishment institution that increases cooperation is high-power punishment  that is publicly pre-committed to. Finally, the existence of a punishment  institution often decreases social surplus (when punishment-related losses  are considered), although it may eventually increase social surplus if it is  powerful and publicly pre-committed to.

    Keywords: punishment, cooperation, reciprocity, gift exchange, public good

    JEL: C91 D03 D64 H41 J41

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wil:wileco:2015-15&r=soc

 6. Feedback, Social Nudges, and Energy Conservation

    Hunter, Elizabeth

    Crago, Christine

    Spraggon, John

 In the context of climate change and heightened concerns about our energy  future, academics and policy makers have taken an interest in the different  motivational factors influencing individuals’ energy use. One area of  particular interest is the role of information and other non-financial

 motivators: When traditional financial incentives are not appropriate, can  contextualized information programs be used to encourage energy conservation?

 In our research we conduct an experiment to examine the effect of feedback  and social nudges on the energy consumption of renters in utility-inclusive  contracts. A sample of 64 households at a University of Massachusetts Amherst  family housing complex was selected to participate in this experiment. These  residents pay utility-inclusive rent and previously had no means of gaining  access to information regarding their personal energy consumption. Households  were randomly divided into a control and two treatment groups. During the  first phase of the experiment, both treatment groups received weekly Home  Energy Reports [HERs] with feedback pertaining to their electricity  consumption and its associated financial cost. During the second phase of the  experiment both treatment groups continued to receive these HERs as before  but with one distinction: households in one of the treatment groups received  additional information as to how their electricity consumption compared to  the electricity consumption of others in the complex (a social nudge).

 Analysis of this experiment suggests that feedback on own electricity usage  reduced electricity consumption on average by 1.9%, while the social nudge  increased electricity consumption by 3.6%. Further investigation into the  cause of this positive effect on electricity consumption from social  contextualization reveals that this figure was driven by low-consumers of  electricity, who subsequently increased their electricity consumption upon  receiving the social nudge.

    Keywords: energy efficiency, energy conservation, social nudge, social

     norms, feedback, field experiment, boomerang effect, split incentives,

     Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205414&r=soc

 7. Promoting Peru’s Smallholder Farmer’s Access to Profitable Markets: The Effects of Social Networks and Farmer Training

    Salas, Vania B.

    Fan, Qin

    Keywords: International Development,

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:204363&r=soc

 8. Precautionary Intentions and Risk Perceptions: Empirical Evidence from the Victims of Typhoon Morakot

    Chou, Wan-Jung

    Huang, Yu-Chia

    Chang, Ching-Cheng

It has been widely considered that when faced with natural hazard risks in  the future, people adopt precautionary measures in order to alleviate the  impact of a hazardous event. This study used the data from the Household  Survey of Post-Morakot Social Impact and Recovery-Wave 1 implemented in June, 2010 in Taiwan via face to face interview with the representatives of the  households that were forced to relocate after the typhoon. The raw data  contains 1658 observations, representing 1658 households. Based on a  two-stage approach, we, in the first stage, investigate the determinants of  three types of households’ risk perceptions for the future, respectively,  with the following explanatory variables: one’s experience with disaster with  damage incurred, one’s trust in the authorities as well as local communities  regarding their capacity of emergency response, one’s socio-demographic  backgrounds and one’s residential areas. In the second stage, we assess the  power of previously investigated risk perceptions, as well as of other  factors, in explaining households’ intention to adopt measures for  preparedness, for mitigation and for recovery, respectively. Subject to the  categorical characteristics of dependent variables, an ordered probit model  was employed. Our estimation results confirm the association between  precautionary behaviour taken before Morakot and households risk perceptions  after typhoon Morakot. However, it is inconclusive regarding whether or not  former actions could reduce risk perceptions in a later stage. A negative  correlation between trust in the central government and perceived impact of  property loss is observed which suggests that the central government’s  emergency response takes effect on reducing the damage on property. In  comparison, households with higher trust in local communities tend to have  lower perceived likelihood of a typhoon disaster. The corresponding predicted  values confirmed that majority of the sampled households have high or very  high risk perceptions. Households’ socio-demographic background and the  locations of their residency are related to risk perceptions, primarily  perceived probability and impact on property. The extent to which one trusts  the central government and local communities in their disaster response  capacity explains his/her intention to take precautionary actions. These  results imply that households’ trust in the central government indicates  their dependency on the government and hence results in weaker intention to  take self-protect actions. Furthermore, households who trust in local  communities do not consider that it is the communities’ responsibility to  take protection measures and being part of the communities, they recognise  the necessity of precautionary actions at the community level. Furthermore,  we found that excessive compensation is correlated with weaker intention to  purchase property insurance but a similar effect is not observed with respect  to the intention to take up insurance against personal accidents. This can be  explained by the fact that the authorities offered to the households affected  by typhoon Morakot a financial compensation package that had extensive  coverage on flooded or damaged housing and this can disincentivize households  to purchase property insurance. Finally, the results confirm that certain  predictors have both direct and indirect effects on the intentions to take  certain precautionary measures, when indirect effects are mediated by risk  perceptions. These predictors include trust in the central government for  preparedness and mitigation, trust in local communicates for preparedness,  mitigation and recovery, age for preparedness measures, income and illiteracy  for mitigation measures and ethnicity for recovery measures. Moreover, the  direct and indirect effects in some cases can counteract with each other.

Thus if risk communication is to be sought in order to promote households’ precautionary behaviour against typhoon hazards, not only the information  about the possibility and potential impact associated with a hazard but also  households’ attitudes and socio-demographic factors ought to be taken into  account in the development of communication strategies.

    Keywords: Household, precautionary behaviour/intention, risk perception,

     typhoon disaster, trust, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Risk and

     Uncertainty,

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205549&r=soc

 9. Trust in the LEADER approach: the case study of the Veneto region in Italy

    Pisani, Elena

    Franceschetti, G.

    Secco, L.

    Da Re, R.

The paper presents a methodology for the assessment of interpersonal and  institutional trust measured at the level of Local Action Groups of the  LEADER Approach and based on the use of indicators and on Social Network  Analysis (SNA). From the theoretical point of view, the indicators can be  used in longitudinal studies to assess if the relation between individual  trust and social networks is verified with regard to specific organizations  promoting rural development at local level. From the operative point of view,  the indicators of trust represent a useful and relative simple instrument to  be used in the monitoring and evaluation activities of the LEADER Approach.

    Keywords: Trust, LEADER Approach, Social Network Analysis, Monitoring and

     Evaluation, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Research and

     Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, O22, O18,

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aiea14:197453&r=soc

10. Does Social Capital Explain Small Business Resilience? A Panel Data Analysis Post-Katrina

    Torres, Ariana P.

    Marshall, Maria I.

How small businesses fare after a natural disaster and what it takes for them  to survive is very important to the economy because they employ approximately  half of America’s private workforce (SBA, 2013) and are a critical component  of and major contributor to the vitality of cities, states, and the country  (Cochrane, 1992; Robbins, 2001). It is widely known that small businesses  tend to feel greater economic repercussions after natural disasters when  compared to larger businesses (Schrank et al., 2013). Following a disaster, a  business can be closed or remain operating, but this status varies with time  and depends on the business’ vulnerability or its level of resilience  (Alesch, 2003; Cutter, 2008), especially after considering that small  business owners are hit twice by disasters: as business owners and as local  citizens (Runyan, 2006). Post-disaster resilience is a multidimensional and  complex process that takes place over time, is related to the rebuilding of  the life of individuals, businesses, communities, and institutions, and is  strongly influenced by the interaction of the agents that are affected by a  disaster (Chang, 2010; Olshansky, 2005). Aldrich (2012) illustrated how  social capital—networks that formally or informally offer resources—explains  the ability to withstand a disaster and build resilience by quickly  disseminating information and financial and physical assistance within a  community. This study takes a step further and aims to understand how social  capital explains the resilience of small businesses after Hurricane Katrina.

Most studies have focused mainly on the macroeconomic impacts of disasters  using aggregated data and have lightly addressed small business resilience  using the business as the unit of analysis (Zhang et al., 2008; Aldrich,  2012). Although the aggregated analysis is useful to understand the effects  of disasters on the recovery of businesses, it does not shed light on the how  and why of the resilience process. This study uses the Small Business  Disaster Recovery Framework (SBDRF) to assess how social capital explains the  resilience of small businesses hit by Hurricane Katrina (Marshall and  Schrank, 2014). Based on the SBDRF, post-disaster operating businesses were  categorized as closed, survived, recovered, and resilient depending on the  comparison between pre- and post-disaster indicators (Marshall and Schrank,  2014). After a disaster, a business can be closed or open, and for those  businesses that are can be classified as survived, recover, or resilient. The  SBDRF categorizes operating business as survived as those that have not  reached pre-event levels, a recovered business has return to its pre-disaster  state, and a resilient business has exceeded the baseline performance  pre-disaster (Bruneau et al., 2003; Marshall and Schrank, 2014). A panel  regression was used with the level of gross revenues pre- and post-Katrina as  dependent variables (2004, 2011, and 2013). To assess the level of  post-disaster business resilience this study used quantitative (e.g. gross  revenues comparisons) and qualitative indicators (owner’s perceptions of  success). The methodology addresses the assumptions that 1) simultaneity  between resilience, recovery, and survival can create possible endogeneity,  and 2) the status of the business as open or closed may involve a non-random  sample selection. Business owner’s perceptions are key for studies on small  businesses and these tend to be ignored if research and conclusions are drawn  only from simulation models or aggregated data. This study addresses the lack  of a finer measurement of social capital in economic and social studies by  incorporating multiple categories of the key independent variable, social  capital, such as bonding (support received from similar individuals such as  family and friends), bridging (support received from dissimilar individuals  such as communities), and linking (support received from institutions)  (Aldrich, 2012; Hawkins and Maurer, 2010). This study incorporated several  control variables at the community, family, and small business level often  included in small and family business studies. For instance, this study  included control variables for human capital, financial capital, location, a  county socioeconomic vulnerability index, a rurality index, and demographic  variables of the business and business’ owner that can affect the operation  of the business after disaster. The data for this study comes from the first  and second wave of the Small Business Survival and Demise after a Natural  Disaster Project (SBSD). This data set is unique because it includes  information about both open and closed businesses at different points in time  and allows us to determine the differences to those that remained operating.

The primary sampling unit within the model is the small business, which was  defined as those that had 0-200 employees and were headquartered in the state  of Mississippi. Of the 2,610 business owners reached, the cooperation rate  was 19.12% providing a random sample size of 499 businesses. Preliminary  results show that from the 420 small business used in this study, 11.90% of  the business are closed and 88.10% are operating. From those operating, the  majority have survived and only 18.81% have recovered and 25.00% are  resilient. The results suggest that few business are resilient or even  recovered. Small business that received social capital were significantly  more likely to be operating after Katrina and the probability of being  resilient significantly increases with the level of social capital. For  instance, small businesses are 23.95%, 28.57%, and 21.35% (at P<0.001) more  likely to be resilient when they received support from family and friends,  the community, or institutions, respectively. In addition, the results  suggest that linking is the most effective type of social capital to build  small business resilience. This study bridges the gap existing between the  impact of natural disaster and small businesses to analyze how social capital  explains business resilience. Two main questions were answered. First, does  social capital explain small business resilience after Hurricane Katrina?

 Second, what is the most effective type of social capital for building small  business resilience? The results illustrate how small business owners,  especially those who lack physical and financial resources, connected to  their communities and forming part of tighter local networks can overcome  disaster and build resilience. The more links business owners have to the  community, families, friends, and institutions (i.e. the more social capital  they have), the better off they will be when they go through a crisis;  therefore, self-reliance only cannot assure post-disaster recovery. This  study shows that social capital, sources of information and assistance during  crisis, should be taken into account as another tangible asset for mitigation  and recovery. Finally, scholars, planners, and government agencies can use  these results to advocate for increasing social capital by incorporating  incentives and interventions to support the creation and strengthening of  bonds between citizens and local social networks through community  participation and leadership development.

    Keywords: Katrina, social capital, resilience, small business,

     Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics,

     Environmental Economics and Policy,

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205080&r=soc

11. Getting a Leg Up or Pulling it Down? Interpersonal Comparisons and Destructive Actions: Experimental Evidence from Bolivia

    Zeballos, Eliana

 Sometimes people, when comparing themselves with others, take a host of  actions that are destructive to those around them, even when these actions  imply self-inflicted costs. "Pulling down" other more successful individuals  may have both direct and indirect detrimental effects on productivity and  efficiency. On one hand, welfare is reduced directly as output is destroyed,  and indirectly if their threat induces ex-ante behavioral responses in the  form of lower levels of effort and investment. Consequently, linking  reactions to upward social comparisons and their effect on effort levels may  help explain the considerable variability in how people have been shown to  react to such comparisons. In this paper, I develop a two-stage, two-agent  model of strategic behavior that integrates the role of inter-personal  comparisons with conventional neoclassical economic preference theory to  analyze how interpersonal comparisons lead to destructive behavior and affect  levels of effort. The experiment, designed to test the predictions of the  model and tease out the mechanisms that drive destructive behavior, builds on  the two-stage "money burning" game. The experimental games were carried out  in Bolivia among 285 dairy farmers. Results show that people that were above  the within-group mean, in average exert less effort when comparing themselves  with others (the "guilt" case); while people below the within-group mean  exert more effort (the "keep-up-with-the-Joneses" case). People who fear the  envy of others decrease their effort exerted, specially if they are highly  ranked. Results from the money burning game show that people below the mean  took in average more destructive behavior than people above the mean. Of all  the participants, 55% took at least one destructive action against somebody  in their group reducing their output by 34%. People seem to be averse to  disadvantageous inequalities, but not averse to advantageous inequalities.

 Moreover, people destroy less the bigger the advantageous difference is but  destroy more in the oposite case.

    Keywords: Interpersonal comparisons, Destructive behavior, Envy, Equity,

     Equality, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, D01, D03, D63,

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205660&r=soc

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