Testing Lin's Social Capital Theory in an Informal African Urban Economy

Jean-Philippe Berrou and François Combarnous

Journal of Development Studies, 2011, vol. 47, issue 8, 1216-1240

Abstract: In order to test Lin's social capital theory in an informal African urban economy, this article outlines an approach articulated around the notion of ‘ego-centred network’. We used an original dataset collected in Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso) to evaluate how member attributes in entrepreneurs' networks tend to influence their economic outcomes. The instrument of multiple name generators provides a vast amount of information that can be used to compute quantitative measures of the composition of networks. We show that the proportion of members with a high social status have no significant positive impact on economic outcomes, contrary to more approachable individuals.

Date: 2011
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2010.547937 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:47:y:2011:i:8:p:1216-1240

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/FJDS20

DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2010.547937

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Studies is currently edited by Howard White, Oliver Morrissey and Ken Shadlen

More articles in Journal of Development Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().