Human development cannot occur without women’s empowerment. Particularly in marginalised contexts... more Human development cannot occur without women’s empowerment. Particularly in marginalised contexts lacking equal treatment between women and men, women’s empowerment is conditioned upon their control on financial resources and on activities outside their households’ tasks such as entrepreneurial activities. Such contexts have been experiencing the escalation of microfinance schemes of which women have been the main target group. While scholars generally agree on the opportunities that microcredit represents for microentrepreneurial activities, its effective impact on women entrepreneurship and, hence, their empowerment show contrasting results. We aim to contribute to this debate by conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews to female members of the group lending model of microfinance institute in the western rural area of Uttar Pradesh, northern India. The thematic questions of the interviews address, particularly, the social resources (social capital) and economic conditions underpinning the process of empowerment among women’s members of peer-group lending schemes. We find that social capital plays a crucial role for a peer-group lending to be successful both in terms of access to financial resources and loan’s repayment. However, we detect the presence of empowerment only where the outcome of this social capital resources is used by a woman to pursue her own entrepreneurial activities and self-determined goals. Our findings contribute to the social capital literature as well as on the current debate regarding the revision of the goals of microcredit schemes for minority groups in entrepreneurship
Durante décadas de mudanças políticas e sociais, a corrupção se tornou um fator pervasivo e habit... more Durante décadas de mudanças políticas e sociais, a corrupção se tornou um fator pervasivo e habitual nos governos latino-americanos. A literatura sobre a economia política da corrupção debate, em grande parte, os impactos negativos que políticas anticorrupção ineficientes têm na responsividade do Estado (state accountability). Sem dúvida, este trabalho contribui para a literatura ao oferecer evidências importantes de suporte para esse assunto. Com dados do Latinobarómetro coletados entre 2006 e 2010, este estudo explora a relação entre a percepção dos cidadãos em relação à corrupção e à confiança nas instituições públicas, mais comumente chamada de confiança institucional. Evidências empíricas sugerem que a confiança dos cidadãos cresce se eles percebem melhoras na redução da corrupção. Esses resultados são robustos também para a inclusão de várias covariáveis socioeconômicas, bem como quando replicamos a análise para cada item de confiança institucional separadamente. Nossa análise...
Book synopsis: There has been much literature which has addressed the positive relationship betwe... more Book synopsis: There has been much literature which has addressed the positive relationship between trust and economic performance. This study measures the confidence of individuals that are part of the labor force in the public sector, politicians and public institutions. The study found that levels of confidence was higher among the employed compared to the unemployed, employees of the public sector compared to those of the private sector, and finally the West Bank when compared to Gaza. It recommends that efforts should be made in the private sector and small financial institutions, in order to stop the persistent lack of confidence in them.
This paper proposes a new proxy of social capital based on the regional density of industrial dis... more This paper proposes a new proxy of social capital based on the regional density of industrial districts. The advantage of this new proxy is to better deal, at least conceptually, with the main three problems related to the PI advanced by Paldam (2000) which are: the definition of voluntary associations, the intensity of the contacts and the so called “Benignness-weight problem”. In our analysis we show an empirical comparison between the behaviour of our index and that one of the Putnam Instrument across the Italian regions. To do so we use regional data in the 2001 from the Italian National Bureau of Statistics (ISTAT). One of the interesting results from the empirical application is that the new proxy and the Putnam’s instruments present similar patterns, even though with some exceptions.
Institutional conformity might help explain regional credit market failures in Italy in terms of ... more Institutional conformity might help explain regional credit market failures in Italy in terms of insolvency rate. A credit relation is subject to a certain degree of uncertainty about the credible commitment of the parties to fulfil the contractual obligations. We argue that conformity to informal institutions of reciprocal cooperation and trust can reduce this degree of uncertainty and, hence, contract breaches. We support our argument by conducting an empirical investigation where the regional density of industrial districts is used as indicator of institutional conformity. We find lower insolvency rate in regions with higher institutional conformity. Additionally, we find higher conformity to informal institutions in regions where the punishment system reacts quicker to non-compliant behaviours, suggesting a complementary relationship between conformity to informal institutions and lower cost of punishment. One of the advantages of this indicator consists in the possibility of ad...
The aim of this paper is to propose a new proxy of social capital based on the density of the ind... more The aim of this paper is to propose a new proxy of social capital based on the density of the industrial districts network at the regional level. The methodology used is very similar to that one formalised by Paldam (2000) in order to construct the Putnam’s instrument (PI). This new proxy should, at least conceptually, better deal with the main three problems related to the PI advanced by Paldam (2000) which are: the definition of voluntary associations, the intensity of the contacts and the so called “Benignness-weight problem”. In our analysis we will compare empirically the behaviour of our index with that one of the PI across the Italian regions by using regional data in the 2001 derived from the Italian National Bureau of Statistics (ISTAT). One of the interesting results from the empirical application is that the new proxy and the Putnam’s instruments presents similar patterns, even though with some exceptions. JEL Classification: L200 Z130
Citizens' tax compliance should not only respond to the quality of formal institutions, but m... more Citizens' tax compliance should not only respond to the quality of formal institutions, but might also be culturally driven. We contribute to this literature by investigating whether tax morale, an individual's intrinsic non-pecuniary motivation to comply with taxes, is associated with the cultural values (following Hofstede's typology) held by this individual. The analysis exploits four waves of the European Values Survey (1981–2010) across 48 countries. The cultural dimensions are constructed through a polychoric principal component analysis on a set of relevant survey items consistent with Hofstede's definitions. Ordered logit estimations suggest that although values of individualism and femininity are associated with higher individual's tax morale, power distance and uncertainty avoidance are associated with lower tax morale. These results remain consistent as we increase the level of granularity of our investigation through within-region analyses and, subseq...
We examine the cultural context for individual's trust in public institutions. To shed some l... more We examine the cultural context for individual's trust in public institutions. To shed some light on possible cultural explanations from a more comparative perspective and cover a wider set of cultural aspects, we use indicators of cultural dimensions by Kaasa et al. (2014) based on Hofstede's (1980) approach. Multilevel regression analysis is conducted with individual-level data from two waves of the European Social Survey (2008, 2010) and regional-level data from multiple sources. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to construct the indicators of social and institutional trust and corruption. Our results suggest that individuals tend to trust institutions less in regions with large power distance. Hence, an important key for governments being more successful in achieving their aims seems to be related to improving the sense of participation and civic responsibility.
The need of further research on the interlink between culture and institutions has been strongly ... more The need of further research on the interlink between culture and institutions has been strongly advocated by economists and institutionalists alike. However, bringing together culture and institutions within an organic framework, though, is a non-trivial operation. This is due to the complexity of the synergies between cultural aspects and institutional devices. This special issue attempts to start filling this gap and to build an ad-hoc systemic platform for disseminating such a debate. To this purpose, it brings together an organic collection of contributions in well-established conceptualisations of both culture and institutions, supported by robust and consistent methodological applications. The essays presented in this work provide consistent evidence and conceptual perspectives supporting the idea that the synergies between cultural and institutional aspects are of paramount importance to understand human behaviour, individuals' choices and societies' patterns. They a...
O artigo investiga a relação entre capital social e o padrão de vida das famílias italianas, base... more O artigo investiga a relação entre capital social e o padrão de vida das famílias italianas, baseando-se na pobreza e na exclusão social. A análise é desenvolvida em um nível regional, através de corte transversal dos anos de 2002 e 2003. Os índices de capital social que utilizamos são de atividade associativa no modelo de Putnam e um novo indicador baseado na densidade regional de distritos industriais. Ao usar o modelo empírico utilizado por Grootaert (2001), descobrimos que nossos resultados confirmam a teoria do mecanismo avançado de transição do capital social e pobreza de Narayan e Woolcock (2000). Além disso, encontramos correlações significativa e negativa entre capital social e as medidas de exclusão social. Todos esses resultados levaram o artigo à conclusão de que o capital social é, positivamente, correlacionado a níveis altos de padrão de vida.
It is estimated that $1 trillion flows out of the developing and emerging economies illegally on ... more It is estimated that $1 trillion flows out of the developing and emerging economies illegally on a yearly basis. This affects the ability of governments to raise the tax revenue and deprive the citizens of crucial services. Multinational Corporations (MNCs), as one of the big player in the global economy, are suspected to play a role in those capital outflows. For the multinational, the outflows enable strategic allocation pf taxes as a mean to enhance profits. This study tests whether institutional quality and tax level are significant predictors of the illicit capital outflow. The analysis uses panel data regressions on a group of Eastern European countries for the years 2004-2013. Empirical evidence suggests that illicit capital outflow reduces with institutional quality and increases with the tax level. We speculate on the importance of cross-country coordination actions to improve the quality of the institutions not only domestically but also at the supranational level.
Human development cannot occur without women’s empowerment. Particularly in marginalised contexts... more Human development cannot occur without women’s empowerment. Particularly in marginalised contexts lacking equal treatment between women and men, women’s empowerment is conditioned upon their control on financial resources and on activities outside their households’ tasks such as entrepreneurial activities. Such contexts have been experiencing the escalation of microfinance schemes of which women have been the main target group. While scholars generally agree on the opportunities that microcredit represents for microentrepreneurial activities, its effective impact on women entrepreneurship and, hence, their empowerment show contrasting results. We aim to contribute to this debate by conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews to female members of the group lending model of microfinance institute in the western rural area of Uttar Pradesh, northern India. The thematic questions of the interviews address, particularly, the social resources (social capital) and economic conditions underpinning the process of empowerment among women’s members of peer-group lending schemes. We find that social capital plays a crucial role for a peer-group lending to be successful both in terms of access to financial resources and loan’s repayment. However, we detect the presence of empowerment only where the outcome of this social capital resources is used by a woman to pursue her own entrepreneurial activities and self-determined goals. Our findings contribute to the social capital literature as well as on the current debate regarding the revision of the goals of microcredit schemes for minority groups in entrepreneurship
Durante décadas de mudanças políticas e sociais, a corrupção se tornou um fator pervasivo e habit... more Durante décadas de mudanças políticas e sociais, a corrupção se tornou um fator pervasivo e habitual nos governos latino-americanos. A literatura sobre a economia política da corrupção debate, em grande parte, os impactos negativos que políticas anticorrupção ineficientes têm na responsividade do Estado (state accountability). Sem dúvida, este trabalho contribui para a literatura ao oferecer evidências importantes de suporte para esse assunto. Com dados do Latinobarómetro coletados entre 2006 e 2010, este estudo explora a relação entre a percepção dos cidadãos em relação à corrupção e à confiança nas instituições públicas, mais comumente chamada de confiança institucional. Evidências empíricas sugerem que a confiança dos cidadãos cresce se eles percebem melhoras na redução da corrupção. Esses resultados são robustos também para a inclusão de várias covariáveis socioeconômicas, bem como quando replicamos a análise para cada item de confiança institucional separadamente. Nossa análise...
Book synopsis: There has been much literature which has addressed the positive relationship betwe... more Book synopsis: There has been much literature which has addressed the positive relationship between trust and economic performance. This study measures the confidence of individuals that are part of the labor force in the public sector, politicians and public institutions. The study found that levels of confidence was higher among the employed compared to the unemployed, employees of the public sector compared to those of the private sector, and finally the West Bank when compared to Gaza. It recommends that efforts should be made in the private sector and small financial institutions, in order to stop the persistent lack of confidence in them.
This paper proposes a new proxy of social capital based on the regional density of industrial dis... more This paper proposes a new proxy of social capital based on the regional density of industrial districts. The advantage of this new proxy is to better deal, at least conceptually, with the main three problems related to the PI advanced by Paldam (2000) which are: the definition of voluntary associations, the intensity of the contacts and the so called “Benignness-weight problem”. In our analysis we show an empirical comparison between the behaviour of our index and that one of the Putnam Instrument across the Italian regions. To do so we use regional data in the 2001 from the Italian National Bureau of Statistics (ISTAT). One of the interesting results from the empirical application is that the new proxy and the Putnam’s instruments present similar patterns, even though with some exceptions.
Institutional conformity might help explain regional credit market failures in Italy in terms of ... more Institutional conformity might help explain regional credit market failures in Italy in terms of insolvency rate. A credit relation is subject to a certain degree of uncertainty about the credible commitment of the parties to fulfil the contractual obligations. We argue that conformity to informal institutions of reciprocal cooperation and trust can reduce this degree of uncertainty and, hence, contract breaches. We support our argument by conducting an empirical investigation where the regional density of industrial districts is used as indicator of institutional conformity. We find lower insolvency rate in regions with higher institutional conformity. Additionally, we find higher conformity to informal institutions in regions where the punishment system reacts quicker to non-compliant behaviours, suggesting a complementary relationship between conformity to informal institutions and lower cost of punishment. One of the advantages of this indicator consists in the possibility of ad...
The aim of this paper is to propose a new proxy of social capital based on the density of the ind... more The aim of this paper is to propose a new proxy of social capital based on the density of the industrial districts network at the regional level. The methodology used is very similar to that one formalised by Paldam (2000) in order to construct the Putnam’s instrument (PI). This new proxy should, at least conceptually, better deal with the main three problems related to the PI advanced by Paldam (2000) which are: the definition of voluntary associations, the intensity of the contacts and the so called “Benignness-weight problem”. In our analysis we will compare empirically the behaviour of our index with that one of the PI across the Italian regions by using regional data in the 2001 derived from the Italian National Bureau of Statistics (ISTAT). One of the interesting results from the empirical application is that the new proxy and the Putnam’s instruments presents similar patterns, even though with some exceptions. JEL Classification: L200 Z130
Citizens' tax compliance should not only respond to the quality of formal institutions, but m... more Citizens' tax compliance should not only respond to the quality of formal institutions, but might also be culturally driven. We contribute to this literature by investigating whether tax morale, an individual's intrinsic non-pecuniary motivation to comply with taxes, is associated with the cultural values (following Hofstede's typology) held by this individual. The analysis exploits four waves of the European Values Survey (1981–2010) across 48 countries. The cultural dimensions are constructed through a polychoric principal component analysis on a set of relevant survey items consistent with Hofstede's definitions. Ordered logit estimations suggest that although values of individualism and femininity are associated with higher individual's tax morale, power distance and uncertainty avoidance are associated with lower tax morale. These results remain consistent as we increase the level of granularity of our investigation through within-region analyses and, subseq...
We examine the cultural context for individual's trust in public institutions. To shed some l... more We examine the cultural context for individual's trust in public institutions. To shed some light on possible cultural explanations from a more comparative perspective and cover a wider set of cultural aspects, we use indicators of cultural dimensions by Kaasa et al. (2014) based on Hofstede's (1980) approach. Multilevel regression analysis is conducted with individual-level data from two waves of the European Social Survey (2008, 2010) and regional-level data from multiple sources. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to construct the indicators of social and institutional trust and corruption. Our results suggest that individuals tend to trust institutions less in regions with large power distance. Hence, an important key for governments being more successful in achieving their aims seems to be related to improving the sense of participation and civic responsibility.
The need of further research on the interlink between culture and institutions has been strongly ... more The need of further research on the interlink between culture and institutions has been strongly advocated by economists and institutionalists alike. However, bringing together culture and institutions within an organic framework, though, is a non-trivial operation. This is due to the complexity of the synergies between cultural aspects and institutional devices. This special issue attempts to start filling this gap and to build an ad-hoc systemic platform for disseminating such a debate. To this purpose, it brings together an organic collection of contributions in well-established conceptualisations of both culture and institutions, supported by robust and consistent methodological applications. The essays presented in this work provide consistent evidence and conceptual perspectives supporting the idea that the synergies between cultural and institutional aspects are of paramount importance to understand human behaviour, individuals' choices and societies' patterns. They a...
O artigo investiga a relação entre capital social e o padrão de vida das famílias italianas, base... more O artigo investiga a relação entre capital social e o padrão de vida das famílias italianas, baseando-se na pobreza e na exclusão social. A análise é desenvolvida em um nível regional, através de corte transversal dos anos de 2002 e 2003. Os índices de capital social que utilizamos são de atividade associativa no modelo de Putnam e um novo indicador baseado na densidade regional de distritos industriais. Ao usar o modelo empírico utilizado por Grootaert (2001), descobrimos que nossos resultados confirmam a teoria do mecanismo avançado de transição do capital social e pobreza de Narayan e Woolcock (2000). Além disso, encontramos correlações significativa e negativa entre capital social e as medidas de exclusão social. Todos esses resultados levaram o artigo à conclusão de que o capital social é, positivamente, correlacionado a níveis altos de padrão de vida.
It is estimated that $1 trillion flows out of the developing and emerging economies illegally on ... more It is estimated that $1 trillion flows out of the developing and emerging economies illegally on a yearly basis. This affects the ability of governments to raise the tax revenue and deprive the citizens of crucial services. Multinational Corporations (MNCs), as one of the big player in the global economy, are suspected to play a role in those capital outflows. For the multinational, the outflows enable strategic allocation pf taxes as a mean to enhance profits. This study tests whether institutional quality and tax level are significant predictors of the illicit capital outflow. The analysis uses panel data regressions on a group of Eastern European countries for the years 2004-2013. Empirical evidence suggests that illicit capital outflow reduces with institutional quality and increases with the tax level. We speculate on the importance of cross-country coordination actions to improve the quality of the institutions not only domestically but also at the supranational level.
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