The relationship between social interaction and mental health is an area of continued focus for the social sciences. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this study examines the effect of social support network type on mental health in the context of two competing psychological models. The main effects hypothesis predicts that individuals with strong so...

Identity and Racial Harassment In a 1996 survey of U.S. military personnel, more than 65 percent experienced racially offensive behavior, and approximately one-in-ten reported threatening incidents or careerrelated racial discrimination. Perceived racial harassment is driven by social classifications that extend beyond racial group membership. While race clearly matters, there is also diversity...

Using household-level data specifically collected for the purpose of evaluation, we empirically evaluate the impact on household income of a rural program in China that focuses on increasing women’s economic and social participation in the local community. We find that the program substantially increases women’s participation and household income, and also generates positive social benefits. Ou...

Article history: Received 17 September 2012 Received in revised form 12 September 2013 Accepted 14 September 2013 Available online 26 September 2013 This paper aims at an important gap in the literature, which has not modeled the effect of social learning in a real option context and examined uncertainty-reduction measures through social learning. This paper addresses the gap by modeling social...

This paper analyzes subjective evaluations of the wage distribution and preferences for redistribution using Swiss data from the International Social Survey Program. Preferences for redistribution are conceptualized and measured as the discrepancy between the perceived and the just level of wage inequality. The results suggest that there is both considerable support for equalisation of wages an...

We estimate the effect of social capital on the ability of households to insure consumption after unexpected negative shocks. Many theoretical models argue that strong ties to extended family members and to one’s community help protect families when an adult becomes ill or disabled. Using household-level longitudinal data on Indonesian families, we test whether consumption declines less after a...

In an economy where there is no double coincidence of wants and without public recordkeeping of past transactions, money is usually seen as the only mechanism that can support exchange. In this paper we show that, as long as the population is finite and agents are sufficiently patient, a social norm establishing gift-exchange can substitute for money. However, for a given discount factor, popul...

A utilitarian social planner who maximizes social welfare assigns the available income to those who are most efficient in converting income into utility. However, when individuals are concerned about their income falling behind the incomes of others, the optimal income distribution under utilitarianism is equality of incomes. JEL classification: H0, I0, I30, I31

Money doesn’t seem to make us happy for reasons of social comparison and habituation. But does that necessarily mean that we would be better off doing something else instead? This paper suggests that the phenomena of comparison and habituation are actually found in a variety of economic and social activities, rendering policy conclusions more difficult. JEL Classification Codes: D01, D31, H00, ...

I provide a typology of social capital, breaking it down into seven more fundamental forms of capital: information capital, brokerage capital, coordination and leadership capital, bridging capital, favor capital, reputation capital, and community capital. I discuss how most of these forms of social capital can be identified using different network-based measures. JEL Classification Codes: D85, ...