Was Banfield right? New insights from a nationwide laboratory experiment.

ABSTRACT: Since the pioneering study by Banfield, the North-South gap in Italian social capital has been considered by international scholars as an example of how cultural diversity within a country can generate different developmental outcomes. Most studies, however, suffer from limited external validity and measurement error. This paper exploits a new and representative online lab-experiment to assess social-capital patterns in Italy. Unlike previous experiments, we do not inform participants about the geographic origins of their counterparts. This feature allows us to assess the North-South gap in universal, as opposed to parochial, behavior. Results suggest that Southerners and Northerners do not systematically differ in generalized prosocial preferences. Only trustworthiness is higher among. No

SUBMITTER: Aassve A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8596913 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature