Mark Lutter

Why the Poor Play the Lottery: Sociological Approaches to Explaining Class-based Lottery Play

Why do the poor spend more on lottery tickets than their wealthier and better educated peers? While social scientists generally agree that there is an inverse relationship between socio-economic position and patterns of lottery play, there is debate on what factors cause lottery gambling. Using survey data from a nationwide probability sample, we test three sociological approaches – socio-structural, cultural and social network accounts – to explain why the poor play the lottery. While controlling for cognitive bias theory, we find that peer play, educational attainment and self-perceived social deprivation have strong effects on lottery play. Culture, the study finds, plays a much lesser role. Although lottery players demonstrate fatalistic value orientations, it is not a lack of a ‘Protestant’ work ethic that makes the poor spend proportionally more on lottery tickets. The findings of this study generally point to the importance of social structures in explaining lottery gambling.

Do Women Suffer from Network Closure? The Moderating Effect of Social Capital on Gender Inequality in a Project-Based Labor Market, 1929 to 2010:

That social capital matters is an established fact in the social sciences. Less clear, however, is how different forms of social capital affect gender disadvantages in career advancement. Focusing on a project-based type of labor market, namely the U.S. film industry, this study argues that women suffer a “closure penalty” and face severe career disadvantages when collaborating in cohesive teams. At the same time, gender disadvantages are reduced for women who build social capital in open networks with higher degrees of diversity and information flow. Using large-scale longitudinal data on career profiles of about one million performances by 97,657 film actors in 369,099 film productions between the years 1929 and 2010, I analyze career survival models and interaction effects between gender and different measures of social capital and information openness. Findings reveal that female actors have a higher risk of career failure than do their male colleagues when affiliated in cohesive networks, but women have better survival chances when embedded in open, diverse structures. This study contributes to the understanding of how and what type of social capital can be either a beneficial resource for otherwise disadvantaged groups or a constraining mechanism that intensifies gender differences in career advancement.

Supranational Cultural Norms, Domestic Value Orientations, and the Diffusion of Same-Sex Union Rights in Europe, 1988-2009

The process of policy diffusion is gaining increasing attention among social scientists. Following world society theory, a burgeoning literature reports a positive relationship between national linkages to global cultural norms and the diffusion of public policies. However, previous analyses do not simultaneously control for time-varying domestic cultural orientations. In order to conduct a stricter test of this theory, this article examines the wave of same-sex union (SSU) laws in Europe. While in the mid-1980s, no European country provided explicit recognition to gay and lesbian couples, by 2009, 16 European countries had legalized these unions. Using event history models, the article tests predictions of the world society theory and Inglehart’s domestic-cultural theory. Results provide strong support for the world society and domestic-cultural theories. Countries with a higher level of value secularization and stronger links to the global cultural order are more likely to introduce legal protections for SSUs.

One Currency and Many Modes of Wage Formation: Why the Eurozone Is Too Heterogeneous for the Euro

Synchronization of national price inflation is the crucial precondition for a well-functioning fixed exchange rate regime. Given the close relationship between wage inflation and price inflation, convergence of price inflation requires the synchronization of wage inflation. Why did the convergence of wage inflation fail during the first ten years of the euro? While differences in economic growth shape the inflation of labor costs, our argument is that the type of wage regime has an additional, independent impact. In coordinated labor market regimes, increases in nominal unit labor costs tended to fall below the ECBs inflation target, while in uncoordinated labor regimes, the respective increases tended to exceed the European inflation target. To show this, we analyze data from 1999-2008 for twelve euro members. We estimate the increases of nominal unit labor costs both in the overall economy and in manufacturing as dependent variables, test a variety of labor- and wage-regime indicators, and control for a battery of economic, political, and institutional variables. Neither the transfer of wage coordination from the North to the South nor the transfer of adjustment pressure from the South to the North is likely to solve the problem of inner-European exchange-rate distortions.

Tagträume und Konsum: Die imaginative Qualität von Gütern am Beispiel der Nachfrage für Lotterien

What factors determine demand for consumer goods? Using the demand for lottery tickets as an example, the article discusses an approach from consumption sociology which highlights the imaginative quality of goods. The theory, based on Campbell (1987), explains consumption from the consumer’s attempt to realize fantasies stemming from socially constructed daydreams. On the basis of survey data, the study shows that lottery players who have daydreams and fantasies on winning large amounts of money spend more money for tickets and play more regularly. From this perspective, demand for lotteries is explained by its potential to create and maintain dream worlds which players find enjoyable to indulge in. With the ticket, lottery players buy an imagined dream on what to do with large amounts of money and on how this would transform their lives. The article concludes with a discussion on how this theory can be applied to study phenomena beyond the domain of consumption.

The Diversity of Wage Regimes: Why the Eurozone Is Too Heterogeneous for the Euro

Why did the transnational synchronization of wage inflations fail during the first 10 years of the euro? We analyze data from 1999 to 2008 for 12 euro members and estimate increases of nominal unit labor costs both in the overall economy and in manufacturing as dependent variables. While our analysis confirms that differences in economic growth shaped the inflation of labor costs, we add a political-institutional argument to the debate and argue that the designs of the wage regimes had an additional, independent impact. In coordinated labor regimes, increases in nominal unit labor costs tended to fall below the European Central Bank’s inflation target, while in uncoordinated labor regimes, the respective increases tended to exceed the European inflation target. Due to the stickiness of wage-bargaining institutions, the lack of the capacity to synchronize inflation is not likely to disappear in the foreseeable future.

Zur Erklärung von Diffusionsprozessen. Das Beispiel der Einführung staatlicher Lotterien in den USA Explaining Diffusion: The Introduction of State Lotteries in the USA

Zusammenfassung Der Aufsatz beschäftigt sich mit den Determinanten der Diffusion staatlicher Lotterien als Beispiel einer politischen Innovation. Nach einer Verbotszeit von mehr als 100 Jahren führten US-Bundesstaaten Lotterien ab den 1960er Jahren schrittweise wieder ein. Anhand von statistischen Ereignisdatenanalysen zeigt der Beitrag, dass der Diffusionsprozess von fiskalischen, politischen und regionalen Faktoren ebenso wie von normativen Faktoren der sozialen Legitimierung abhängt. Der Aufsatz stellt zwei weitere Aspekte heraus, die empirisch demonstriert werden: Zum einen wird ein erweitertes regionales Diffusionsmodell diskutiert, das die räumliche Ausbreitung in Abhängigkeit zur ideologischen Struktur umgebender Staaten erfasst; zum anderen wird die zeitliche Dynamik des Prozesses modelliert. Hierfür ist der soziologische Neo-Institutionalismus der theoretische Bezugspunkt und es wird angenommen, dass mit zunehmender Dauer des Diffusionsprozesses die ursprünglichen Kausalfaktoren ihre Erklärungskraft zugunsten eines Bedeutungsgewinns von Legitimitätsaspekten verlieren. Die Ergebnisse dokumentieren isomorphische Adaptionsprozesse und in organisationsökologischer Hinsicht die Bedeutung institutioneller Umwelten für die Ausbreitung von Organisationen. Summary This paper examines the determining factors in the diffusion of state lotteries as a process of policy innovation. After more than 100 years of prohibiting them, individual states in the US began to establish lotteries in the 1960s. Statistical event history analysis is used to show that the adoption and diffusion of state lotteries depends on fiscal, political, and regional factors of competition as well as on normative factors of social legitimization. Two further arguments are developed, discussing, for one, an advanced model of regional diffusion that views the regional effect as dependent on the ideological-institutional context and, secondly, analyzing time dynamics in the diffusion process to show how initial explanatory factors change over time. In general, the findings indicate that the institutional environment shapes the diffusion of organizations.

The enduring importance of family wealth: Evidence from the Forbes 400, 1982 to 2013

The richest 1 percent in the United States is a largely unexplored group, despite its ever-increasing share of the national wealth. The Forbes roster of the richest Americans has often been used to demonstrate the fading of nineteenth-century hereditary fortunes. Based on full panel data from the annual American Forbes 400 ranking (1982-2013), this article goes beyond previous work by examining not only the sources of the very wealthy but also the factors that increase or decrease the likelihood of remaining listed among the American super-rich and the typical patterns of mobility. We find that heirs are more likely to remain listed in the Forbes 400 roster than self-made entrepreneurs, all other things being equal. While scions of great wealth are less likely to drop completely from the list, they are nevertheless more likely to fall gradually in ranking than are self-made multimillionaires. Even though entrepreneurship matters increasingly for becoming super-rich, we conclude that it is first and foremost the ability of rich family dynasties to retain control over corporations and to access sophisticated financial advice that makes fortunes last.

Creative Success and Network Embeddedness: Explaining Critical Recognition of Film Directors in Hollywood, 1900–2010

This article analyzes how social network structures affect career success in a projectbased labor market. The literature on team success has shown that teams perform well if they integrate both weak and strong ties simultaneously. Applying the literature to careers in the creative industries, the study suggests that creative artists are more likely to receive critical recognition if they build their careers in both familiar project networks and heterogeneous sets of creative conventions. It is argued that familiarity and diversity operate as complementary elements in the development of innovative ideas. While diversity is important to maximize the flow of new ideas, it needs to be embedded within trustworthy and familiar network structures in order to fully develop its creative potential. The suggested mechanism is tested by means of full career data of 55,097 film directors, covering 478,859 directing jobs in 330,142 film productions during the years 1900-2010. It is shown that familiarity and diversity explain a considerable part of a directors critical success. Results from interaction effects show that diversity has greater effects on critical success if it is socially embedded within familiar social structures. The article contributes to the emerging understanding of the role of group processes and network structures in explaining individual career success.

Anstieg oder Ausgleich? Die multiplikative Wirkung sozialer Ungleichheiten auf dem Arbeitsmarkt für Filmschauspieler More or Less? Multiplicative Effects of Inequality on the Labor Market for Film Actors

Zusammenfassung Das multiplikative Zusammenwirken zwischen geschlechtsspezifischen Ungleichheiten und Erfolgsanhäufungen, der so genannte Matthäus-Effekt, ist bislang kaum Gegenstand soziologischer Forschung gewesen. Folglich ist unklar, wie sich kumulierte berufliche Erfolge im Zeitverlauf auf Karriereungleichheiten zwischen den Geschlechtern auswirken. Verstärkt der Matthäuseffekt bestehende Genderdisparitäten? Oder hebelt er sie aus? Mithilfe eines Längsschnittdatensatzes, der vollständige Karriereverläufe von über 8.000 deutschsprachigen Schauspielern im Zeitraum zwischen 1900-2010 erfasst, wird gezeigt, dass sich Erfolgsakkumulationen für Frauen vorteilhaft auswirken. Insgesamt bestehen zwar deutliche geschlechtsspezifische Ungleichheiten - Frauen haben signifikant schlechtere Chancen als Männer -, diese nivellieren sich jedoch mit der Anhäufung von Filmpreisen auf ein statistisch nicht mehr von null zu unterscheidendes Niveau. Die Ursachen könnten mit der über Erfolg gesteigerten Aufmerksamkeit zusammenhängen, die imstande ist, Opportunitäten für Benachteiligungen zu reduzieren. Summary Since multiplicative effects between gender inequality and cumulative advantages, known as the Matthew effect, have not received much attention in sociology, little is known about the impact of cumulative advantages on gender inequality over the course of a career. Does the Matthew effect intensify gender disadvantages, or does it cancel them out? Using a panel dataset covering the period from 1900 to 2010 which contains full career profiles of over 8,000 German film actors, the study shows that the accumulation of success has a positive effect on womens career opportunities. Although female actors generally have less opportunity for career success than men, they compensate for this disparity in essentially complete fashion if they make a name for themselves, especially by winning awards. The reason for this may lie in the increased attention accorded to successful actresses, which reduces the risk of discrimination.