In the paper, we argue that trust is the missing link relating education, institutions, and economic development. We argue that increased trust both increases education and improves legal and bureaucratic institutions, which in turn spurs economic development. We substantiate this intuition with...

In this essay, we explore cultural impacts on the private entrepreneurship in the post-Doi Moi Vietnam. Some important aspects of the traditional cultural values of the Vietnamese society are explored in conjunction with the socio-economic changes over the past two decades. Traditional cultural...

This paper studies the relationship between the size of the shadow economy and generalized trust, on a cross-section of countries, both developed and developing, and finds that it is significantly negative. That relationship is robust to controlling for a large set of economic, policy, and...

Microfinance group lending with joint liability allows asset-poor individuals to replace physical collateral by social collateral. The literature on microfinance lacks a rigid framework for analyzing the consequences of using social collateral for borrowing behavior and repayment. This paper...

This paper returns to one of the early questions of the literature on social trust, whether trust affects total factor productivity (TFP). Using both development and growth accounting, we find strong evidence of a causal effect of trust on the level and growth of TFP. Using a three-stage...

The functioning of welfare states and tax systems is fostered by social norms to obey the rules of the system. Morale can change and react to new incentives. In particular, a deep economic crisis with increasing unemployment and reduced prospects for market income may have a norm eroding effect....

Conventional wisdom associates the success of microfinance group lending with joint liability only. Recent studies have pinpointed the role of social capital, around which the successful implementation of joint liability contracts seems to revolve. This paper brings together all relevant...

Knowledge sharing typically examines organizational transfer of knowledge, often from headquarters to subsidiaries, from developed country sites to emerging country sites, or from host to local employees. Yes, recent research, such as Prahalad’s Bottom of the Pyramid, raises the question of...

This paper investigates the participation in social networks of theater's audiences. Our purpose is to observe, describe and understand the role of social networks in the consumption behavior of the theater field. In particular, we put the accent on the concept of cultural capital with its...

There is now an increasing consensus that the effects of microfinance on self-employment are limited, with two common interpretations. The microeconomic approach suggests that the poor lack the skills, the resources and the motivation to start their own business. The macroeconomic approach...