Kinship, fractionalization and corruption

Abstract

By shaping patterns of relatedness and interaction, marriage practices influence the relative returns to norms of nepotism/favoritism versus norms of impartial cooperation. In-marriage (e.g. consanguineous marriage) yields a relatively closed society of related individuals and thereby encourages favoritism and corruption. Out-marriage creates a relatively open society with increased interaction between non-relatives and strangers, thereby encouraging impartiality. We report a robust association between in-marriage practices and corruption across countries and across Italian provinces. A stylized corruption experiment comparing subjects from two countries with divergent marriage patterns provides complementary evidence that the degree of impartiality varies with marriage patterns.

The Perception of Organisational Nepotism Depending on the Membership in Selected Christian Churches

“…The former, more committed to family values, perceive nepotic phenomena naturally arising from the logic of supporting relatives more favorably. This result coincides with the literature, according to which Catholics more often rely on family values (Arruñada 2004(Arruñada , 2010Yeganeh 2014;Akbari et al 2019;Treisman 2000). On the other hand, Protestants advocate greater social control than Catholics (Colvin and McCracken 2017), which also indirectly affects a more critical assessment of nepotic phenomena.…”

“…Simultaneously, according to numerous researchers, traditional religions (e.g., Catholicism), which strengthen hierarchy and are based on the power of an authority, may provoke nepotism (Yeganeh 2014). In contrast to Protestantism, Catholicism puts much more emphasis on the personal family and friendship relationships (Arruñada 2004(Arruñada , 2010Yeganeh 2014;Akbari et al 2019;Treisman 2000), which also provokes nepotism. Although there is research evaluating the influence of the practiced religion on economic development (over 100 years ago Max Weber wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, in which he claimed that Protestantism contributed economic development more significantly than Catholicism) and on the elimination of an unethical behavior (e.g., corruption) (Yeganeh 2014;Zakaria 2018;Treisman 2000), there is still a shortage of research comparing the approach towards nepotism depending on the membership in a given Christian denomination, with particular attention being paid to Catholicism and Protestantism.…”

“…Arruñada and Krapf 2019). The values emphasized by Catholicism allow Catholics to more favorably perceive family businesses and networks of small enterprises, by contrast to anonymous trade and large corporations with their specific values and value control (Arruñada 2004;Arruñada 2010;Yeganeh 2014;Akbari et al 2019;Treisman 2000).…”

Ancestral Characteristics of Modern Populations

“…He shows that a greater prevalence of cousin marriage today is associated with less democracy and more corruption. Akbari, Bahrami-Rad and Kimbrough (2017) also examine the relationship between cousin marriage and corruption. Moscona, Nunn and Robinson (2017) examine the effects of one particular lineage organization -segmentary lineage systems.…”

The Origins of WEIRD Psychology

“…In our ongoing work, we find empirical evidence that intensive kinship, as proxied by genetic measures that are highly correlated with cousin marriages, indeed impacts economic prosperity. Kinship intensity fosters corruption (Akbari et al (217)), hinders the development of large-scale, well-functioning institutions (Schulz (98),Woodley and Bell (218)), and -as we report here -decreases outgroup trust (which is an important prerequisite for trade and the division of labor). Other plausible channels include the possibility that kinship intensity distorts creativity (see Table S3.2 above) and entrepreneurial incentives (as profits need to be shared with the kin-group) and hampers the diffusion of technology (219).…”