467 research outputs found
Keeping up with the e-Joneses: Do online social networks raise social comparisons?
Online social networks such as Facebook disclose an unprecedented volume of
personal information amplifying the occasions for social comparisons. We test
the hypothesis that the use of social networking sites (SNS) increases people's
dissatisfaction with their income. After addressing endogeneity issues, our
results suggest that SNS users have a higher probability to compare their
achievements with those of others. This effect seems stronger than the one
exerted by TV watching, it is particularly strong for younger people, and it
affects men and women in a similar way.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure
Online networks and subjective well-being
We argue that the use of online networks may threaten subjective well-being
in several ways, due to the inherent attributes of Internet-mediated
interaction and through its effects on social trust and sociability. We test
our hypotheses on a representative sample of the Italian population. We find a
significantly negative correlation between online networking and well-being.
This result is partially confirmed after accounting for endogeneity. We explore
the direct and indirect effects of the use of social networking sites (SNS) on
well-being in a SEM analysis. We find that online networking plays a positive
role in subjective well-being through its impact on physical interactions,
whereas SNS use is associated with lower social trust. The overall effect of
networking on individual welfare is significantly negative.Comment: 40 page
Education, social capital and entrepreneurial selection in Italy
There is wide consensus that entrepreneurial talent is the ability to discover and exploit market opportunities by taking the relevant risky decisions. Discovery and exploitation are separate but interlinked features of entrepreneurship requiring, in different proportions, the exploitation of innate and acquired skills. Institutions and technology, by determining the nature of the discovery and exploitation process and the need for such skills, play an essential role in shaping the nature of entrepreneurial talent and the specific role of education in entrepreneurial selection and performance. Empirical studies on entrepreneurship do not offer a neat picture of the actual contribution of education to entrepreneurial human capital or entrepreneurial talent. This unsatisfactory outcome is not surprising and is due to an inadequate assessment of the context-dependent factors shaping the latter. Building on these premises, the aim of our research work is to carry out a in depth analysis of the determinants of entrepreneurship in Italy, thus accounting for the role that variables like the educational qualification, the family background, and social capital play in determining the entrepreneurial selection. This paper attempts to constitute a first step for the improvement of our understanding by means of a preliminary, exploratory, analysis on the Italian data and a series of probit analyses aimed at identifying the main determinants founding the entrepreneurial choice. Rough data are taken from an original dataset built by the authors partly drawing on the Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) carried out by the Bank of Italy. The latter has been integrated with a wide variety of environmental variables drawn from different data sources describing the social and institutional context of the entrepreneurial activity.Education; Work status; Employment; Self-employment; Entrepreneurship; Human capital; Social capital; Cognitive abilities
Online Networks, Social Interaction and Segregation: An Evolutionary Approach
We have developed an evolutionary game model, where agents can choose between
two forms of social participation: interaction via online social networks and
interaction by exclusive means of face-to-face encounters. We illustrate the
societal dynamics that the model predicts, in light of the empirical evidence
provided by previous literature. We then assess their welfare implications. We
show that dynamics, starting from a world in which online social interaction is
less gratifying than offline encounters, will lead to the extinction of the
sub-population of online networks users, thereby making Facebook and alike
disappear in the long run. Furthermore, we show that the higher the propensity
for discrimination between the two sub-populations of socially active
individuals, the greater the probability that individuals will ultimately
segregate themselves, making society fall into a social poverty trap
Will Facebook save or destroy social capital? An empirical investigation into the effect of online interactions on trust and networks
Studies in the social capital literature have documented two stylised facts: first, a decline in measures
of social participation has occurred in many OECD countries. Second, and more recently, the success of
social networking sites (SNSs) has resulted in a steep rise in online social participation. Our study adds
to this body of research by conducting the first empirical assessment of how online networking affects
two economically relevant aspects of social capital, i.e. trust and sociability. We find that participation
in SNSs such as Facebook and Twitter has a positive effect on face-to-face interactions. However,
social trust decreases with online interactions. We argue that the rising practice of hate speech may
play a crucial role in the destruction of trust
Beta-diversity of Central European forests decreases along an elevational gradient due to the variation in local community assembly processes
Beta-diversity has been repeatedly shown to decline with increasing
elevation, but the causes of this pattern remain unclear, partly because they
are confounded by coincident variation in alpha- and gamma-diversity. We used
8,795 forest vegetation-plot records from the Czech National Phytosociological
Database to compare the observed patterns of beta diversity to null-model
expectations (beta-deviation) controlling for the effects of alpha- and
gamma-diversity. We tested whether \b{eta}-diversity patterns along a 1,200 m
elevation gradient exclusively depend on the effect of varying species pool
size, or also on the variation of the magnitude of community assembly
mechanisms determining the distribution of species across communities (e.g.,
environmental filtering, dispersal limitation). The null model we used is a
novel extension of an existing null-model designed for presence/absence data
and was specifically designed to disrupt the effect of community assembly
mechanisms, while retaining some key features of observed communities such as
average species richness and species abundance distribution. Analyses were
replicated in ten subregions with comparable elevation ranges. Beta-diversity
declined along the elevation gradient due to a decrease in gamma-diversity,
which was steeper than the decrease in alpha-diversity. This pattern persisted
after controlling for alpha- and gamma-diversity variation, and the results
were robust when different resampling schemes and diversity metrics were used.
We conclude that in temperate forests the pattern of decreasing beta-diversity
with elevation does not exclusively depend on variation in species pool size,
as has been hypothesized, but also on variation in community assembly
mechanisms. The results were consistent across resampling schemes and diversity
measures, thus supporting the use of vegetation plot databases for
understanding...Comment: Accepted version 25 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl
CARBONIFEROUS PLANT FOSSILS FROM THE SAN LORENZO SCHISTS (PISANI MOUNTAINS, TUSCANY, ITALY): A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE PALAEOBOTANICAL COLLECTION OF THE MUSEO NATURALISTICO ARCHEOLOGICO DELLâAPPENNINO PISTOIESE
The Museo Naturalistico Archeologico dellâAppennino Pistoiese (MUNAP) hosts one of the most abundant and diverse collections of Late Palaeozoic plant fossils from the San Lorenzo Schists of the Pisani Mountains. More than 1200 rock slabs yielding plant fossils were collected from six different outcrops in Guappero Valley in the San Lorenzo a Vaccoli area (NE of the Pisani Mountains, near Lucca), the type-locality of the formation. The present study concerns two outcrops at Via Pari that are characterized by a wide range of plant fossils (20 taxa) belonging to the lycopsids (Stigmaria), sphenopsids (Calamites, Asterophyllites, Calamostachys, Sphenophyllum, Bowmanites), ferns (Acitheca, Diplazites, Cyathocarpus), seed ferns (Alethopteris, ?Autunia, gen. indet.), cordaites (Cordaites) and seeds (Carpolithes). This first description of the plant fossil collection and the revision of its stratigraphical context with respect to the surrounding famous fossiliferous sections of the Guappero Valley refine the stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental framework of the Late Palaeozoic successions of the Pisani Mts. and more generally of the Apennine chain. The qualitative and quantitative analyses show significant environmental variations between neighbouring outcrops in the Via Pari area â i.e., more humid conditions in âVia Pari Bucaâ than in âVia Pari Smottamentoâ â and suggest a latest Carboniferous (Gzhelian) instead of an early Permian age as proposed by previous authors. Moreover, the differences in composition between the plant assemblages of the Via Pari sections with the historical assemblage of the nearby Monte Vignale outcrop (containing typical Permian and more xerophytic elements) in the De Stefani Collection of the Florence Natural History Museum is explained by a younger age (early Permian) of the latter
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