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Civic Capital as the Missing Link

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  • Luigi Guiso
  • Paola Sapienza
  • Luigi Zingales

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.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by European University Institute in its series Economics Working Papers with number ECO2010/08.

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Date of creation: 2010
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Handle: RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2010/08

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Guido De Blasio & Guglielmo Barone, 2011. "Local electoral rules and political participation," ERSA conference papers ersa11p418, European Regional Science Association.
  2. repec:aia:ginidp:dp17 is not listed on IDEAS
  3. Helena Soares & Tiago Neves Sequeira & Pedro Macias Marques & Orlando Gomes & Alexandra Ferreira-Lopes, 2012. "Social Infrastructure and the Preservation of Physical Capital: Equilibria and Transitional Dynamics," Working Papers Series 2 12-04, ISCTE-IUL, Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL).
  4. Giacomo Corneo, 2011. "GINI DP 17: Income Inequality, Value Systems and Macroeconomic Performance," GINI Discussion Papers 17, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.

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