Electoral accountability is a cornerstone of democratic governance, yet whether voters effectively punish corruption remains theoretically and empirically contested. While canonical models predict that corruption revelations reduce incumbent support, strategic voting considerations-especially...

Does whistleblowing deter rule violations when such violations are believed to be common? We examine this question in an online experiment about collaborative tax evasion. We vary whether subjects can blow the whistle on their partner in crime and introduce a high-evasion environment by framing...

This paper examines the impact of the social norm of intergenerational support to aging parents on fertility decisions in developing economies. The traditional expectation of receiving support from adult children in old age has historically been a significant factor in the decision to have...

This Focus Note includes illustrative examples from successful initiatives around the world that demonstrate the potential of these strategies—from digital financial solutions that respect privacy concerns to data-driven approaches that challenge institutional biases. Development actors,...

This paper develops a conceptual framework to analyze how gendered social norms mediate the effects of legal frameworks on women’s economic empowerment. Using the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law domains, Safety, Mobility, Work, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Childcare, Entrepreneurship,...

We conducted a within-subject laboratory experiment in which participants decided whether to experience physical discomfort for charity, with or without additional personal compensation. Acceptance decreased with greater discomfort and increased with both larger charitable donations and personal...

Within an emerging market context, the purchase of dairy free milk alternatives is not well understood. The purpose of the article is to present a model within which purchase intentions of South African emerging market consumers can be interpreted, providing marketers with information on which...

The progress in information and communication technology since the 1970s has expanded Internet use and promoted economic development worldwide. Although empirical studies have revealed that social norms change with economic and social development, empirical evidence regarding the association...

Electoral accountability is a cornerstone of democratic governance, yet whether voters effectively punish corruption remains theoretically and empirically contested. While canonical models predict that corruption revelations reduce incumbent support, strategic voting considerations-especially...

We examine the role of household-level social norms regarding women's mobility in determining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's employment. The shock of the pandemic containment measures, such as India's nationwide lockdown caused both supply- and demandside disruptions. Nationally...

In Sub-Saharan Africa, multiple interrelated challenges hinder the potential of girls and young women. Girls and women are more likely to live in poverty than men, have less access to education and health services, and rarely benefit from productive economic opportunities. Restrictive social...

This paper exploits a unique norm‑shifting setting - a German pension reform that equalized retirement ages across genders - to examine how old‑age employment propagates through workplace networks. The reform raised women's earliest claiming age from 60 to 63 for cohorts born in 1952 onward....

How do gender identity and norms relate to happiness? This paper takes advantage of the 2024 European Social Survey, which asks respondents to report their feelings of femininity and masculinity, and studies the relationships between these self-assessments, (non-)conformity to gender norms, and...

The paper examines the association between fertility and female wage employment in Kenya using nationally representative cross-sectional data collected by the Kenya's National Bureau of Statistics, a government-owned statistical organization. Two findings emerge from our analysis. The first...

This research investigates the impact of exposure to the social media platform Twitter on son-biased fertility preferences for women in India, using information from over a million Tweets, combined with Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data on more than a million respondents. We apply an...

The crucial importance of institutions for economic and social development has become part of the conventional wisdom in economics. In recent years, economists have become particularly interested in the potential role of informal institutions but measuring them remains a serious challenge. This...

Attitudes toward the roles of women and men in society have become more egalitarian in Germany and most countries around the world since World War II. Recently, however, this process has slowed significantly, even reversing in some places. In most countries, the attitudes of the youngest ten age...

This paper investigates the historical origins of female genital cutting (FGC). We test the historical hypothesis that FGC is associated with the Red Sea route of the African slave trade, where women were typically sold as concubines in the Middle East and infibulation was used as a means to...

This paper examines the causal effect of public discourse in one or both sides of the market on overall market socially responsible behavior. In a laboratory setting, we vary whether firms and/or consumers participate in a public discussion before trading begins. When both sides take part, the...

Although studies have evaluated the costs of violating the male breadwinner norm, little is known about the mental health consequences, particularly for common conditions such as depression and anxiety. We explore this issue using Australian national administrative tax and healthcare records. We...