Cultural Identity and Social Capital in Italy

Daniel Sgroi, Michela Redoano (michela.redoano@warwick.ac.uk), Federica Liberini, Ben Lockwood, Emanuele Bracco and Francesco Porcelli
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Michela Redoano: University of Warwick

No 13783, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In a pre-registered experiment involving 1,547 subjects across three Italian cities we exploit regional variation in background, language and diet to investigate the relationship between cultural identity, trust and cooperation. Subjects with relatives (especially maternal grandmothers) who originate in the north of Italy, and who share common cultural characteristics, contributed 15% more in a public goods game, displayed greater "social capital" such as trust in the government and more willingness to pay taxes, than did those whose language and diet identified them as being from the south. On the other hand, self-reported identity, a mainstay of the survey literature, had no predictive power. This highlights the importance of identity but only when it is measured appropriately.

Keywords: social capital; trust; identity; language; experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 C93 D91 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2020-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Cultural Identity and Social Capital in Italy (2021)
Working Paper: Cultural Identity and Social Capital in Italy (2020)
Working Paper: Cultural Identity and Social Capital in Italy (2020)
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