Paper presentation

ICSID Leading Research Fellow Ekaterina Borisova was invited to take part in a seminar organized by the Laboratory for Labour Market Studies (LLMS) and the Centre for Labour Market Studies (CLMS) on March 14, 2017. Ekaterina presented her paper «Bridging or bonding? Preferences for redistribution and social capital in Russia» (co-authored by Denis Ivanov, Research Fellow at ICSID).

Abstract:   Does bridging or bonding social capital matter for redistribution preferences? Existing literature demonstrates causal link between measures of social capital and such preferences but does it mostly for developed countries with good enforcement of formal rules and without a distinction between two different types of social capital. We argue that welfare state relies on contributions from an immense number of anonymous citizens, thus attitudes towards strangers, i.e. generalized trust and solidarity should be salient. Using two surveys of about 34,000 and 37,000 Russians we prove this proposition showing the importance of the bridging type but not the bonding one. Instrumenting social capital with education, climate and distance from Moscow we deal with endogeneity concerns and also contribute to the understanding of the deep roots of social capital in Russia. Additionally we claim that social capital in post-socialist countries could provide public support for the redistribution schemes in spite of the fact that institutions are weak.   

The opponent was Elena Kotirlo, Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Economics.

Bridging or bonding? Preferences for redistribution and social capital in Russia