Social capital as good culture
By: Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza, Luigi Zingales.
Contributors: Sapienza, Paola.; Zingales, Luigi.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 13712; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 13712.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "To explain the extremely long-term persistence (more than 500 years) of positive historical experiences of cooperation (Putnam 1993), we model the intergenerational transmission of priors about the trustworthiness of others.  We show that this transmission tends to be biased toward excessively conservative priors.  As a result, societies can be trapped in a low-trust equilibrium.  In this context, a temporary shock to the return to trusting can have a permanent effect on the level of trust.  We validate the model by testing its predictions on the World Values Survey data and the German Socio Economic Panel.  We also present some anecdotal evidence that differences in priors across regions are reflected in the spirit of the novels that originate from those regions"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 6/6/2008.

Includes bibliographical references.

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