Alfred Marshall lecture - Social capital as good culture

• 成果类型: Article; Proceedings Paper
• 署名作者: Guiso, Luigi; Sapienza, Paola; Zingales, Luigi
• 署名单位: European University Institute; University of Chicago; Northwestern University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1542-4766
• DOI: 10.1162/JEEA.2008.6.2-3.295
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 295-320
• 关键词: trust

摘要

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 these priors are reflected in novels that originate in different parts of the country.