Progress 01/01/07 to 12/31/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Two experiments were conducted in 2007 with 8th graders in two middle schools in Georgia. The data was analyzed and disseminated to the administration of the school district. PARTICIPANTS: Collaborated with researchers at Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. TARGET AUDIENCES: Education administrators and teachers, as well as economists. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
It is so well-known that to get a good job, you need a good education. Like the fact that smoking causes cancer, everyone knows that remaining in school at least through high school graduation is vital to staying out of low-wage America. Yet, just as people continue to smoke, kids drop out of school. Understanding the time preferences of children, particularly adolescents, is thus critical for understanding human capital formation and economic outcomes, as well as for formulating policies that affect children. For example, students who discount the future more heavily should be less likely to invest in school-related efforts relative to other uses of their time that provide more immediate benefits (e.g., leisure). Thus policies targeted towards increasing immediate returns to children with high discount rates may improve educational outcomes more than alternative policies Response Although psychologists, and a few economists, have studied children's patience our project is the first to formally estimate subjective discount rates among adolescents from a broad range of backgrounds. Moreover, we examine the factors that affect the heterogeneity of discount rates and explore the degree to which discount rates are stable or well-formed among adolescents. The project conducted a "delay test" time preferences experiment and used child demographics, and observable data from students over a four-year period, along with outcome variables of eighth-graders in a Georgia middle school to examine why children drop out of school. Impact We found that: 1) the mean annual discount rate from our sample of two-hundred 8th graders is approximately double the estimates of mean adult discount rates; 2) there is substantial heterogeneity of discount rates, with the first quartile having annual discount rates lower than 35%, and the top quartile having rates greater than 100%; 3) adolescents from poor and non-poor households do not differ in their discount rates, but there is evidence of heterogeneity across sex, race and cognitive skills; and 4) the proportion of adolescents who exhibit inconsistent preferences is much higher in our sample than in comparable adult samples. These relationships in the data lead us to hypothesize that differences in educational outcomes may be partially explained by heterogeneity in time preferences across students. If true, our hypothesis also implies that policies targeted towards using monetary incentives to encourage students to get better grades or stay in school may have greater impacts on certain groups. However, further research, particularly the development of panel data sets starting at an early age, will be necessary to establish causal relationships between time preferences and observed outcomes among children.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/06 to 12/31/06
Outputs
While a substantial amount of research has been devoted to showing what social capital does, research on explaining social capital itself lags behind. The literature has a long tradition of examining the effect of social capital on local economic growth and development. For this year of the project we examined whether local economic development can explain the variation in social capital across various geographical clusters in the state of Georgia. We begun by devising a measurement tool, a Human Development Index (HDI). Patterned after work done at the United National Development Program, and modified by Estrada and Allen (2004), the HDI focuses on variables important to community development activities; including educational opportunity, economic opportunity (employment), and access to housing. Census data from 2000 were used to construct the county-level HDIs. The use of an HDI broadens the standard income measurements of economic well-being. We showed that issues of
education and housing do not always align with the usual measures of income and employment. We captured these subtle but important aspects in our county HDI ranking. Our social capital measures were obtained from the Georgia Social Capital Survey. We used a number of measures indicating involvement in various associational memberships, voluntary activities, and philanthropy. Our findings showed that the HDI explains variations in a number of social capital measures (especially the ones derived from associational memberships) across various geographical clusters in the state of Georgia. These results stand even after accounting for various demographic and economic characteristics of the communities. It is clear that there is a geographic difference in measures of well being in Georgia, whether in this study or in other studies on poverty in the state (Carl Vinson Institute of Government, 2003). Attention to education and housing variables appears to be the place where development
strategies are most needed. An educated population with access to decent housing can be the basis of economic and human development. Using this broad-based measure of community development, a specific question that we asked was; does community development affect social capital formation? We found that community development, in general, has a positive effect on local social capital measured by associational memberships. In particular, the aggregate effects on associational memberships come not from the personal groups but from the public groups.
Impacts
This project concludes that as community development increases, people become more involved in public groups that contribute to socio-political and neighborhood related activities. This is an important finding because, first, it contributes to the rare literature on social capital formation, and, secondly, it establishes a benefit of community development that deserves increased attention from policymakers both at local and federal levels.
Publications
- Jordan, J.L. and A. Munasib. 2006. "Motives for Social Capital Consequences." J of Econ Issues, XL, 4: 1093-1112. Dec.
- Jordan, J.L. 2006. "Sustainable Capitalism: A Matter of Common Sense." Book Review in Ag. and Human Values, 23: 531-532
- Jordan, J.L. and A. Wolf. 2006. "Interstate Water Allocation in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia: New Issues, New Methods, New Models." University Press of Florida, May.
- Jordan, J.L. 2006. "Conflict Comes to the Humid East: The Tri-state Water Wars." In Jordan and Wolf (above); p. 20-29.
- Dellapenna, J.W., J.L. Jordan, S. Leitman, and A. Wolf. 2006. "Conclusions: Outcomes, Updates, and Lessons Learned." In Jordan and Wolf (above); p. 233-248.
- A. Wolf and J. Jordan. 2006. "Afterword: Ne Models for Water Allocation in the Southeast." In Jordan and Wolf (above);p. 249-256.
- Jordan, J.L. and A. Munasib. 2006. "Are Friendly Farmers Environmentally Friendly?" J. Ag and Applied Econ (absract). 38:2,p. 456.
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Progress 01/01/05 to 12/31/05
Outputs
The Georgia Social Capital Survey of household and farms is being used to study the ramifications of social capital, both at the individual and the aggregate levels. The first paper out of this general theme addressed the issue of what constitutes social capital. A strand of literature identifies sympathy for others as social capital and it hypothesizes that civic engagements are an outcome of this notion of social capital. This paper critically examined this notion and tested that hypothesis. First of all, we did not find evidence to support this hypothesis. Secondly, we argued that this notion of social capital is not conducive to a reasonable formulation of the individuals decision problem, it cannot be reconciled with the concept of capital, and methodologically, it does not render itself to any analytical exercises so that testable hypotheses can be derived. So, we suggested that while sympathy may be an economically significant phenomenon, it may be more
meaningful to study it as a phenomenon of warm glow and not social capital. In the second paper, we studied environmental awareness as a social capital outcome. Some of the most widely discussed social capital outcomes concern civic matters such as political participation and good governance, philanthropy, increased judicial efficiency and decreased government corruption, and promotion of cooperative movements. Environmental awareness is an important embodiment of social consciousness and civic responsibility. In this paper, we asked if social capital has any influence in determining the individuals environmental awareness. Social capital os an individual indicates the social connectedness of the individual. The individuals environmental awareness and involvement in environmentally friendly practices are likely to be influenced by her social connectedness. We studied the social capital levels of farmers and their environmentally friendly practices. We addressed three main economic
issues: endogeneity of social capital, peer-group type social pressure, and sorting issues. We tested for endogeneity and found that social capital was not endogenous. We also used proxies to account for social pressure and sorting. Our results indicated that first, social capital has a positive effect on the decision to adopt environmentally friendly sustainable agricultural practices, and secondly, that social capital also has a positive effect on the extent to which farmers adopt these practices. In the third paper, a work-in-progress, the state of Georgia is divided into various clusters based on geographical locations and economic activities: first, geographically as north, central, and southern Georgia, and then further dividing them as MSAs, Micropolitan areas, rural areas. A human development index has been calculated and the level of associational activities (social capital) in each cluster has been measured. Our objective is to study the relationship between these two
variables taking into account the characteristics of local demography, local economy, and the local government.
Impacts
These studies move us closer to understanding environmental decision making and in understanding the role of non-market forces in economic development.
Publications
- Jordan, J.L. and A. Munsaib. 2005. Motives and Social Capital Consequences. Journal of Economic Issues.
- Jordan, J.L. 2005. Farmers Choice of Using Sustainable Agricultural Practices: A Social Capital Approach. Journal of Agricultural & Applied Economics 37(2):518.
- Jordan, J.L. 2005. Sustainable Agriculture and Social Capital. University of Georgia, Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty Series, FS-05-01.
- Jordan, J.L. 2005. Motives and Social Capital Consequence. University of Georgia, Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics, Faculty Series, FS-05-02.
- Jordan, J.L. 2005. Are Friendly Farmers Environmentally Friendly? University of Georgia, Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics, Faculty Series, FS-05-03.
- Jordan, J.L. 2005. Human Development and Social Capital. University of Georgia, Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics, Faculty Series, FS
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Progress 01/01/04 to 12/31/04
Outputs
A study was completed that sought to explore, in the context of social capital theory, why farmers choose, or do not choose, to use sustainable agricultural practices. The hypothesis tested is that farmers who exhibit higher levels of social capital, both through concern for others and associational activities, will adopt sustainable agricultural practices more often than those who exhibit lower levels of social capital. A random telephone survey was conducted in the winter of 2003/04 of 400 farmers in Georgia. The survey was designed to test correlations between levels of social capital (both motivations and consequences) and whether a farmer uses one or more of 18 sustainable agricultural practices. In the survey, farmers were asked a series of yes-no questions regarding farming practices that seek to achieve sustainable goals. After the farming practices questions, the respondents were asked a version of a social capital question to determine why they used (or
didn't use) these practices. Similar to the lost wallet questions(would you return a wallet with money and why) respondents were asked to allocate 100 points among three reasons for using sustainable agriculture practices: they are concerned about future farmers and their ability to use resources; it is the right thing to do - the practices are sound; and they earn higher profits or lower their costs. The study found that those farmers who are using at last one of the sustainable practices allocated a mean of 42 points of concern for the future, followed by profit and sound practice (29 each). Seventeen percent of the respondents allocated 100 points to the reason that indicates a concern for the future, while 11 percent allocated 100 points to both sound practices and profit. For those who do not use any sustainable practices (73), sound practice became the highest motive (35) followed by concern for the future (33) and then profit (31). The responses indicate that, contrary to
profit maximization assumptions, farmers are making decisions that include the consequences of social capital. In fact, the respondents who use sustainable practices place the most emphasis on concern for future farmers. Over 70 percent of the motivation for adopting sustainable agricultural practices does not include profit.
Impacts
This study is the first step in looking at social capital, rural development, and sustainable agriculture. Understanding the motivations for adopting sustainable practices will aid decisions on farm policy.
Publications
- Jordan, J.L. 2004. Does Social Capital Contribute to Measures of Quality of Life in Georgia? University of Georgia, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Faculty Series, FS-04-09.
- Jordan, J.L. 2004. Motivation for Social Capital. Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 36(2):512.
- Jordan, J.L. 2004. Connecting the Sources and Consequences of Social Capital for Rural Development. University of Georgia, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Faculty Series, FS04-03.
- Jordan, J.L. 2004. Social Capital and Agricultural Sustainability. University of Georgia, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Faculty Series, FS04-04.
- Jordan, J.L., N. Abrahams, and H. Jones. 2004. Do Natural Monopoly Characteristics Still Exist in the Water Supply Industry? University of Georgia, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Faculty Series, FS04-05.
- Jordan, J.L. 2004. Levels of Social Capital in Georgia: Associational Activities in Georgia's Communities. University of Georgia, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Faculty Series, FS04-07.
- Jordan, J.L. 2004. Constructing a Human Development Index for Georgia's Counties. University of Georgia, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Faculty Series, FS04-08.
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Progress 01/01/03 to 12/31/03
Outputs
A study was completed that sought to connect two strands of research on social capital that exist in the literature; research on the sources and on the consequences of social capital. A random digit-dial survey, conducted in June 2003 in the state of Georgia, was designed to test correlations between motivations for social capital (as seen by looking at the behavior of returning lost money) and the consequences of social capital (the types of associations and civic engagement of respondents). The survey was conducted by the University of Georgia Survey Research Center between June 13 and July 1, 2003. The design of the study called for conducting a total of 500 telephone interviews. The survey covered only residential households. The 500 responses represent a statistically valid sample of the population of Georgia at the 95% confidence interval (with a sampling error of +/-4.3%). The results showed little connection between motivations and associations. The strongest
connection occurs between ethical motivations and activities; people do things because they believe they should. This requires no personal connection with others and requires no caring or sympathy. Motivations regarding reward were generally inversely related to most variables. Volunteering for a variety of causes seems to come mostly from a sense of doing the right thing, or an ethical motivation. Most demographic relationships were also related more to ethical than sympathy motivations. Beyond motivations, there does seem to be a relationship between religious activity (at least in terms of attendance) and the type of associational activities. There appears to be a connection between church attendance and the types of associations that revolve around personal enrichment or personal connections, while there appears to be little relationship between church attendance and civic engagement activities like voting, or general public action work. In any case it is clear that, at least for
this population, the connection between sympathy or caring, and civic engagement is questionable. It is not that people lack sympathy for others, it is that caring is not necessarily translated in activities that may affect the development of a community, except perhaps within the confines of a persons religious experience. While individual transactions may be affected by the bonding or bridging aspects of social capital, how that can be developed into an economic development strategy is unclear. If the concept of capital as a productive input to an economy is to be extended to include social capital, it will require further thought on how to exploit the existing feelings of sympathy or caring that do exist. What is clear from this survey is that the notion of reward, or greed, as a driving force in the economy needs to be rethought. Neoclassical economics, built on the idea of self-utility maximization, may not fully explain actions.
Impacts
This study is the first step in looking at social capital and rural development. Understanding the motivations for civic engagement will help inform policy decisions in the community development area.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/02 to 12/31/02
Outputs
A survey instrument has been developed to analyze the differences in social capital between farmers that have participated in the USDA CRP program and those that have not. A group of farmers identified as participating in sustainable agriculture programs will also be surveyed. The purpose of the survey will be to determine whether these groups of farmers exhibit differnt levels of social capital.
Impacts
If there are differences between groups of farmers that can be characterized as participating in "environmental" programs and those that do not, policies can be devised to encourage such participation.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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