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. Northerners, while they are statistically similar to Southerners in many other economic preferences such as cooperation, trust, expected trustworthiness, altruism, and risk tolerance. We also show that the gap in trustworthiness stems from the lower reciprocity of Southerners in response to large transfers, and it is characterized by the intergenerational transmission of norms. Possible policy implications are discussed.

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“…It follows that one should be truthful and not manipulate this communication (Giani, 2010;Prandini, 1998). Trust, in its many different meanings, has inspired various theoretical approaches to suggesting how it represents the basis for countless human actions (Aassve et al, 2021). Being a markedly interpersonal experience, hence tied to relations with others, whether individuals or institutions, different studies have led towards the belief that it could be promoted or minimized to steer political, economic and social choices (Chakraborty et A nuanced understanding of trust rather implies that it ought to either be promoted or discouraged, as the context requires.…”