A Multilevel Analysis of the Effects of Perceptions of Justice on the Use of Social Sanctions
Abstract: This study questions the existence of a substitution effect of the perceptions of the justice system on the use of social sanctions both at individual and country levels. Individual decision to trigger social sanction may be embedded in a group context. Indeed, it could be that country-level variables have an effect on the individual decision to participate to sanctioning activities. Three different group effects are considered: the endogenous effect, the contextual effect and the correlated effect. To address this issue, an empirical study is conducted using the 2010 data of the European Social Survey (ESS5). The use of social sanctions is measured by a proxy which is the individual decision to boycott. The estimation strategy relies on Shang and Lee (2011), with a two-stage estimator for probit models of endogenous and exogenous group effects, based on the Manski-Brock-Durlauf model (Manski, 1993; Brock and Durlauf, 2001) and Borjas and Sueyoshi (1994). Results indicate that individuals’ perceptions of justice have a substitution effect on the use of social sanctions. Whereas country’s average perceptions of courts have a substitution effect on individual use of social sanctions, country’s average perceptions of police have a complementary effect. This latter result shows different attitudes towards the monitoring and the punishment function of the justice system. Hence, the paper confirms the presence of an endogenous effect. Indeed, the country’s behaviors concerning social sanctions have a complementary effect on individuals’ decisions to participate to sanctioning activities.
