Studies have shown that there are differences in cooperative behavior across countries. Furthermore, differences in the use and the reaction on the introduction of a norm enforcement mechanism have been documented in cross-cultural studies, recently. We present data which prove that stark...

We develop a dynamic model to analyze the sources and the evolution of social participation and social capital in a growing economy characterized by exogenous technical progress. We start from the assumption that the well-being of agents basically depends on material and relational goods....

This paper studies the factors that determine unpaid labour in a voluntary organization, a political party and a trade union. Official data has been taken from Indagine Multiscopo sulla Famiglia, Aspetti della Vita Quotidiana (1997), of the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). In...

This paper studies the factors that determine unpaid labour in a voluntary organization, a political party and a trade union. Official data has been taken from Indagine Multiscopo sulla Famiglia, Aspetti della Vita Quotidiana (1997), of the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). In...

We examine how interaction choices depend on the interplay of social and physical distance, and show that agents who are more central in the social network, or are located closer to the geographic center of interaction, choose higher levels of interactions in equilibrium. As a result, the level...

The aim of this paper is to provide a new mechanism based on social interactions, explaining why distance to jobs can have a negative impact on workers’ labor-market outcomes, especially ethnic minorities. Building on Granovetter’s idea that weak ties are superior to strong ties for...

In this chapter, we provide an overview of research on neighborhoods and social networks and their role in shaping behavior and economic outcomes. We include a discussion of empirical and theoretical analyses of the role of neighborhoods and social networks in crime, education, and labor-market...

This chapter focuses on neighborhood effects in housing markets. Households in effect choose neighborhood effects, or more generally social interactions, via their location decisions, which renders them endogenous. Across several classes of models that it examines, it emphasizes how we may...

We explore the impact of the spatial distribution of developers on the private provision of open space. Our analysis yields three main findings. First, we demonstrate that the mixed public good nature of open space (relative to private lot consumption) can lead a single land rent-maximizing...