In this issue we feature 9 current papers on the theme of social capital:

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In this issue we have:

1. Paternalism, Cultural Transmission and Diffusion on Complex Networks - Panebianco, Fabrizio; Verdier, Thierry
2. The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV - Durante, Ruben; Pinotti, Paolo; Tesei, Andrea
3. Does meditation lead to more selfish or pro-social behaviors in a trust game? Di Bartolomeo Giovanni; Stefano Papa
4. Trust and reciprocity: Extensions and robustness of triadic design - Di Bartolomeo Giovanni; Papa Stefano
5. Procedural Formalism and Social Networks in the Housing Market - Antoine Bonleu
6. Do Social Factors Influence Investment Behaviour and Performance? Evidence from Mutual Fund Holdings - Borgers, Arian; Derwall, Jeroen; Koedijk, Kees; ter Horst, Jenke
7. "Thou shalt not leech" Are digital pirates conditional cooperators? Wojciech Hardy; Michal Krawczyk; Joanna Tyrowicz
8. Lending Credence: Motivation, Trust and Organic Certification - Holland, Steven
9. Local Governance and Social Capital: Do chiefs matter? Meriggi, Niccolo F.; Bulte, Erwin

1. Paternalism, Cultural Transmission and Diffusion on Complex Networks

   Panebianco, Fabrizio

   Verdier, Thierry

 We study cultural diffusion in a complex network where the transition  probabilities are determined by a cultural transmission technology with  endogenous vertical transmission rates (a la Bisin and Verdier, 2001). We  derive a two-way epidemic model in which both the infection and the recovery  rates are endogenous and depend on the topology of the network. First, we  identify a "social structure bias" in cultural transmission that determines  the direction of cultural change relating the economic structure of parental  socialization incentives to the social network structure. Second, we  characterize two balancing conditions satisfied by the network degree  distribution and the vertical transmission rate distribution to ensure the  sustainability of long run cultural heterogeneity. Third, we show how  paternalistic motivations for endogenous cultural transmission interact with  the "social structure bias" channel and maintain steady state cultural  diversity for any network structure.

   Keywords: cultural transmission; diffusion; mean-field; social networks

   JEL: C73 L14 O33

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10722&r=soc

2. The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV

   Durante, Ruben

   Pinotti, Paolo

   Tesei, Andrea

 We investigate the political impact of entertainment television in Italy over  the past thirty years by exploiting the staggered introduction of Silvio  Berlusconi's commercial TV network, Mediaset, in the early 1980s. We find  that individuals in municipalities that had access to Mediaset prior to 1985

 - when the network only featured light entertainment programs - were  significantly more likely to vote for Berlusconi's party in 1994, when he  first ran for office. This effect persists for almost two decades and five  elections, and is especially pronounced for heavy TV viewers, namely the very  young and the old. We relate the extreme persistence of the effect to the  relative incidence of these age groups in the voting population, and explore  different mechanisms through which early exposure to entertainment content  may have influenced their political attitudes.

   Keywords: entertainment; Italy; political participation; television; voting

   JEL: D72 L82 Z13

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10738&r=soc

3. Does meditation lead to more selfish or pro-social behaviors in a trust game?

   Di Bartolomeo Giovanni

   Stefano Papa

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ter:wpaper:0117&r=soc

4. Trust and reciprocity: Extensions and robustness of triadic design

   Di Bartolomeo Giovanni

   Papa Stefano

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ter:wpaper:0111&r=soc

5. Procedural Formalism and Social Networks in the Housing Market

   Antoine Bonleu (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of

    Economics), CNRS & EHESS)

 Why do some OECD countries have high levels of procedural formalism (PF) in  the housing market? We provide an explanation based upon complementarities  between the strength of social networks and the stringency of procedural  formalism. The interest of social networks is that conflict resolution is  independent of the law. When local people belong to social networks whereas  foreigners do not, PF may facilitate housing search for locals at the expense  of foreigners. To illustrate this mechanism we build a search-theoretic model  of the housing market. The model emphasizes that the support for PF increases  with the size of social networks, the default probability on the rent, the  proportion of foreigners, and market tightness.

   Keywords: housing market regulation, search and matching

   JEL: R38

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1529&r=soc

6. Do Social Factors Influence Investment Behaviour and Performance? Evidence from Mutual Fund Holdings.

   Borgers, Arian

   Derwall, Jeroen

   Koedijk, Kees

   ter Horst, Jenke

 We study the economic significance of social dimensions in investment  decisions by analyzing the holdings of U.S. equity mutual funds over the  period 2004-2012. Using these holdings, we measure funds’ exposures to  socially sensitive stocks in order to answer two questions. What explains  cross-sectional variation in mutual funds’ exposure to controversial  companies? Does exposure to controversial stocks drive fund returns? We find  that exposures to socially sensitive stocks are weaker for funds that aim to  attract socially conscious and institutional investor clientele, and they  relate to local political and religious factors. The financial payoff  associated with greater “sin” stock exposure is positive and statistically  significant, but becomes non-significant with broader definitions of socially  sensitive investments. Despite the positive relation between mutual fund  return and sin stock exposure, the annualized risk-adjusted return spread  between a portfolio of funds with highest sin stock exposure and its  lowest-ranked counterpart is statistically not significant. The results  suggest that fund managers do not tilt heavily towards controversial stocks  because of social considerations and practical constraints.

   Keywords: controversial stocks; mutual funds; sin stocks; social norms;

    socially responsible investing

   JEL: G11 G23 M14

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10740&r=soc

7. "Thou shalt not leech" Are digital pirates conditional cooperators?

   Wojciech Hardy (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw)

   Michal Krawczyk (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw)

   Joanna Tyrowicz (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw;

    National Bank of Poland)

 In this project we investigate willingness to share and download cultural  content by implementing a novel "piracy game" modelled after standard public  good games. Subjects' decisions have real consequence, as they are rewarded  with individual "transfer" on a file-sharing service. We find that  willingness to share depends positively on the sharing by others.

 Interestingly, however, this tendency does not seem to be associated with  reciprocity or other-regarding social preferences. We employ several measures  of sharing - from self-reporting to experimental - and incorporate to the  analysis other factors which may explain the autonomous willingness to share,  irrespective of the group effects. We find that conditional cooperation in  content sharing is fairly prevalent, but unrelated to personality traits,  attitude towards risk, attitude towards the other, marginal valuation, as  well as socio-demographic characteristics.

   Keywords: digital piracy, Big Five, public goods, laboratory experiment

   JEL: C92 D63

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2015-26&r=soc

8. Lending Credence: Motivation, Trust and Organic Certification

   Holland, Steven

 The information asymmetries inherent in credence goods have typically led  economists to conclude these markets require well-defined quality standards  and third-party verification that producers are meeting those standards.

 Nonetheless, many producers of credence goods appear to be opting out of  certification. Why? This paper builds in previous research and develops a  theoretical framework to think about how producers’ motivation and  relationships with consumers affect the necessity and effectiveness of  certification. I find the degree to which a consumer trusts the producer of a  credence good and the certification standard that governs it, and the degree  to which the producer is motivated to produce a good of a certain quality,  both have important effects on certification-based regulation.

   Keywords: credence goods, certification, organic, trust, Agricultural and

    Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food

    Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205192&r=soc

9. Local Governance and Social Capital: Do chiefs matter?

   Meriggi, Niccolo F.

   Bulte, Erwin

   Keywords: Community/Rural/Urban Development, Institutional and Behavioral

    Economics, International Development, Political Economy, Public Economics,

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:206136&r=soc

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