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Individual determinants of social behavior

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  • de Blasio, Guido
  • Nuzzo, Giorgio

Abstract

By using unique data from the section on social behavior of the Bank of Italy's 2004 Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW), the paper studies the individual determinants of several aspects of social behavior: attitudes to cooperating with anonymous others; interest in politics; participation in groups and associations; and propensity to rely on favoritism both in finding a job and in dealing with government red tape. Our findings suggest that these different aspects of social behavior are only weakly correlated to each other and are explained by different individual determinants. We find that older and more educated individuals display a greater willingness to cooperate, a stronger interest in politics, and more intense association activity. By contrast, the likelihood of relying on favoritism does not depend on age and education. We also find that home-ownership is associated with good social conduct, while urban residence has mostly a negative impact on public behavior. Finally, having left-wing political opinions increases the interest in politics, while it does not affect the other aspects of social behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • de Blasio, Guido & Nuzzo, Giorgio, 2010. "Individual determinants of social behavior," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 466-473, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:39:y:2010:i:4:p:466-473
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    2. Francesco Bripi, 2016. "The Role of Regulation on Entry: Evidence from the Italian Provinces," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 383-411.
    3. Giorgio Calcagnini & Germana Giombini & Francesco Perugini, 2016. "Bank Foundations, Social Capital, and the Growth of Italian Provinces," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 131, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    4. Giuseppe Albanese & Guido Blasio, 2014. "Who trusts others more? A cross-European study," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(4), pages 803-820, November.
    5. Lorenzo Cicatiello & Salvatore Ercolano & Giuseppe Gaeta, 2015. "Income distribution and political participation: a multilevel analysis," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 42(2), pages 447-479, May.
    6. Davide Dottori & Caterina Giannetti, 2017. "The effect of time preferences on altruism," Discussion Papers 2017/226, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    7. Giuseppe Di Vita, 2012. "Factors Determining the Duration of Legal Disputes: An Empirical Analysis with Micro Data," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 168(4), pages 563-587, December.

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    Social norms Social capital;

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