Gender in politics, social capital and innovation, and topics in new papers.

Despite the existence of gender specific preferences in the society, we find no evidence that the allocation of resources among different spending categories is affected by the gender of politicians. 

[C]rop production and human capital, and not differences in household size, determines the differences in male and female headed land productivity in Kenya. 

. . . [T]he effect of social capital on innovation is shaped by its capability to facilitate the exchange of complementary knowledge between individuals belonging to different epistemic communities (bridging social capital) - rather than within homogeneous like-minded groups (bonding social capital) - making it possible to access non redundant information and preventing cognitive lock- in. 

If alcohol consumption makes people reveal their true type with some positive probability, social drinking might be an efficient signaling mechanism and might be interpreted as a trust facilitating device.