Civic capital as the missing link
By: Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza, Luigi Zingales
Contributors: Sapienza, Paola; Zingales, Luigi; National Bureau of Economic Research
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 15845; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 15845.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] /
Description: "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"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 4/1/2010.

Includes bibliographical references.

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