Does Social Capital Matter? A Study of Hit-and-Run in US Counties

Stefano Castriota (), Sandro Rondinella () and Mirco Tonin
Additional contact information
Stefano Castriota: University of Pisa
Sandro Rondinella: University of Naples Federico II

No 15212, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We investigate the relationship between social capital and the decision to flee after a fatal road accident. This event is unplanned, and the decision is taken under great emotional distress and time pressure, thus providing a test of whether social capital matters for behaviour in extreme conditions. We merge data from the universe of fatality accidents involving pedestrians in the US over the period 2000–2018 with a unique dataset on social capital measures at the county level. Using within-state-year variation, our results show that one standard deviation increase in social capital is associated with a reduction in the probability of hit-and-run of around 10.5%. The causal interpretation of this evidence is supported by a number of falsification tests based on differences in social capital endowment between the county where the accident occurs and the county where the driver resides, as well as by the IV approach proposed by Lewbel (2012). Our findings show the importance of social capital in a new context, suggesting a broad impact on pro-social behaviour and adding to the positive returns of promoting civic norms.

Keywords: hit-and-run; crime; social capital; road accidents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 K42 R41 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2022-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published - published in: Social Science & Medicine , 2023, 329, 116011

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp15212.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Does social capital matter? A study of hit-and-run in US counties (2023)
Working Paper: Does Social Capital Matter? A Study of Hit-and-Run in US Counties (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15212

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().