Civic capital as the missing link

Luigi Guiso*, Paola Sapienza, Luigi Zingales

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

231 Scopus citations

Abstract

This chapter reviews the recent debate about the role of social capital in economics. We argue that all the difficulties this concept has encountered in economics are due to a vague and excessively broad definition. For this reason, we restrict social capital to the set of values and beliefs that help cooperation, which for clarity we label civic capital. We argue that this definition differentiates social capital from human capital and satisfies the properties of the standard notion of capital. We then argue that civic capital can explain why differences in economic performance persist over centuries and discuss how the effect of civic capital can be distinguished empirically from other variables that affect economic performance and its persistence, including institutions and geography.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationHandbook of Social Economics
PublisherElsevier B.V.
Pages417-480
Number of pages64
Edition1 B
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011

Publication series

NameHandbook of Social Economics
Number1 B
Volume1
ISSN (Print)1570-6435

Keywords

  • Civic capital trust trustworthiness cultural norms economic performance

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)

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