Historical Self-Governance and Norms of Cooperation

IF 6.6 1区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS

Econometrica Pub Date : 2024-09-27 DOI:10.3982/ECTA20579

Devesh Rustagi

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Does self-governance, a hallmark of democratic societies, foster norms of generalized cooperation? Does this effect persist, and if so, why? I investigate these questions using a natural experiment in Switzerland. In the Middle Ages, the absence of an heir resulted in the extinction of a prominent noble dynasty. As a result, some Swiss municipalities became self-governing, whereas the others remained under feudalism for another 600 years. Evidence from a behavioral experiment, the World Values Survey and the Swiss Household Panel consistently show that individuals from historically self-governing municipalities exhibit stronger norms of cooperation today. Referenda data on voter-turnout allow me to trace these effects on individually costly and socially beneficial actions for over 150 years. Furthermore, norms of cooperation map into prosocial behaviors like charitable giving and environmental protection. Uniquely, Switzerland tracks every family's place of origin in registration data, which I use to demonstrate persistence from cultural transmission in a context of historically low migration.

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历史自治与合作规范

作为民主社会标志的自治是否会促进普遍合作的规范？这种效应是否持续存在？我利用瑞士的一个自然实验来研究这些问题。在中世纪，由于没有继承人，一个显赫的贵族王朝灭亡了。因此，瑞士的一些市镇开始自治，而其他市镇则在封建统治下继续存在了 600 年。来自行为实验、世界价值观调查（World Values Survey）和瑞士家庭调查（Swiss Household Panel）的证据一致表明，来自历史上自治城市的个人如今表现出更强的合作规范。关于选民投票率的全民公决数据让我可以追溯到 150 多年来这些对个人付出代价和对社会有益的行动的影响。此外，合作规范还体现在慈善捐赠和环境保护等亲社会行为上。与众不同的是，瑞士在登记数据中追踪每个家庭的原籍地，我利用这些数据证明了在历史上移民较少的情况下文化传播的持久性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Econometrica 社会科学-数学跨学科应用

CiteScore

11.00

自引率

3.30%

发文量

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

期刊介绍： Econometrica publishes original articles in all branches of economics - theoretical and empirical, abstract and applied, providing wide-ranging coverage across the subject area. It promotes studies that aim at the unification of the theoretical-quantitative and the empirical-quantitative approach to economic problems and that are penetrated by constructive and rigorous thinking. It explores a unique range of topics each year - from the frontier of theoretical developments in many new and important areas, to research on current and applied economic problems, to methodologically innovative, theoretical and applied studies in econometrics. Econometrica maintains a long tradition that submitted articles are refereed carefully and that detailed and thoughtful referee reports are provided to the author as an aid to scientific research, thus ensuring the high calibre of papers found in Econometrica. An international board of editors, together with the referees it has selected, has succeeded in substantially reducing editorial turnaround time, thereby encouraging submissions of the highest quality. We strongly encourage recent Ph. D. graduates to submit their work to Econometrica. Our policy is to take into account the fact that recent graduates are less experienced in the process of writing and submitting papers.