Social Capital and Economic Development

No 1, SPES Discussion Papers from University of Rome La Sapienza, SPES Development Studies Research Centre

Abstract: This paper carries out an empirical assessment of the causal nexus connecting social capital's diverse aspects to the "quality" of economic development in Italy. The analysis accounts for three main social capital dimensions (i.e. bonding, bridging and linking social capital) and measures them through synthetic indicators built by means of principal component analyses performed on a dataset including multiple variables. The quality of development is measured through human development and indicators of the state of health of urban ecosystems, public services, social protection, gender equality, and labour markets. The causal relationship between social capital's and development's different dimensions is then assessed through structural equations models. The analysis in this paper provides a relevant proof of Putnam's claims on the positive role of civil society organizations in development processes.

Keywords: Social capital; Social networks; Civil Society; Economic development; Social quality; Labour precariousness; Structural Equations Modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C39 O15 O18 R11 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-pke, nep-soc and nep-ure
Date: 2006-04
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