Microfoundations of Social Capital

Christian Thöni; Jean-Robert Karl Tyran; Erik Roland Wengström

doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2012.04.003,

Microfoundations of Social Capital

Christian Thöni, Jean-Robert Karl Tyran, Erik Roland Wengström

Department of Economics

84 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Research on social capital routinely relies on survey measures of trust which can be collected in large and heterogeneous samples at low cost. We validate such survey measures in an incentivized public good experiment and show that they are importantly related to cooperation behavior in a large and heterogeneous sample. We provide evidence on the microfoundation of this relation by use of an experimental design that enables us to disentangle preferences for cooperation from beliefs about others' cooperation. Our analysis suggests that the standard trust question used in the World Values Survey is a proxy for cooperation preferences rather than beliefs about others' cooperation. In contrast, the "fairness question", a recently proposed alternative to the standard trust question, seems to operate through beliefs rather than preferences.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Public Economics
Volume	96
Issue number	7-8
Pages (from-to)	635-643
ISSN	0047-2727
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2012.04.003,
Publication status	Published - Aug 2012

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title = "Microfoundations of Social Capital",

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author = "Christian Th{\"o}ni and Tyran, {Jean-Robert Karl} and Wengstr{\"o}m, {Erik Roland}",

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T1 - Microfoundations of Social Capital

AU - Thöni, Christian

AU - Tyran, Jean-Robert Karl

AU - Wengström, Erik Roland

N1 - JEL Classification: H41; C91; C72

PY - 2012/8

Y1 - 2012/8

N2 - Research on social capital routinely relies on survey measures of trust which can be collected in large and heterogeneous samples at low cost. We validate such survey measures in an incentivized public good experiment and show that they are importantly related to cooperation behavior in a large and heterogeneous sample. We provide evidence on the microfoundation of this relation by use of an experimental design that enables us to disentangle preferences for cooperation from beliefs about others' cooperation. Our analysis suggests that the standard trust question used in the World Values Survey is a proxy for cooperation preferences rather than beliefs about others' cooperation. In contrast, the "fairness question", a recently proposed alternative to the standard trust question, seems to operate through beliefs rather than preferences.

AB - Research on social capital routinely relies on survey measures of trust which can be collected in large and heterogeneous samples at low cost. We validate such survey measures in an incentivized public good experiment and show that they are importantly related to cooperation behavior in a large and heterogeneous sample. We provide evidence on the microfoundation of this relation by use of an experimental design that enables us to disentangle preferences for cooperation from beliefs about others' cooperation. Our analysis suggests that the standard trust question used in the World Values Survey is a proxy for cooperation preferences rather than beliefs about others' cooperation. In contrast, the "fairness question", a recently proposed alternative to the standard trust question, seems to operate through beliefs rather than preferences.

U2 - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2012.04.003,

DO - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2012.04.003,

M3 - Journal article

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VL - 96

SP - 635

EP - 643

JO - Journal of Public Economics

JF - Journal of Public Economics

IS - 7-8

ER -

Microfoundations of Social Capital

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