The transition of the »Old Communist« countries of East and Central Europe has been disappointingly slow given the amount of physical and human capital available at the start of the <p> transition. We argue that this slowness is caused by the lack of social capital, which is an <p> important factor...</p></p>

The notion of "social capital" was first introduced by the sociologist James Coleman in 1988. He defined it as "the ability of people to work togather for common purposes in groups and organizations". It is argued that a group with members that trust each other can accomplish more economic groth...

The transistion of the "Old Communist" countries of East and Central Europe has been disappointingly slow given the amount of physical and human capital available at the start of the transition. We argue that this slowness is caused by the lack of social capital, which is an important factor of...

In order to explain excess co-operation in the one-shot prisoner's dilemma game, we first question the standard assumption of stable and selfish preferences by introducing the concept of social capital. This analysis leads to a model that explains excess co-operation through an accumulation of...

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a standard method of measurement for social capital. Various <p> authors have investigated the influence of social capital on economic growth but still social capital has <p> not been measured in any satisfactory way. So far, each survey has used its own ad hoc...</p></p>

We hypothesize, that power centralisation in a political system leads to more corruption due to the <p> monopoly power status of bureaucrats. Corruption again would then lead to a lower level of social capital, <p> here measured as trust, and slow down economic growth even further. Indeed, when...</p></p>

Social capital has not been measured in any general way yet as previous surveys have used their own ad hoc methodologies. This fact is due to the heterogeneity of the very definition of social capital. Therefore, consensus concerning measurement has not yet been reached. Based on ten existing...

We develop a two-sector model to analyze which kind of social <p> organization generates social capital. The hypothesis is that social capital must <p> be added as an important production factor when considering decentralization <p> of production. Thus, market centralization processes in a capitalist...</p></p></p>

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a standard method of measurement for social capital. Various authors have investigated the influence of social capital on economic growth but still social capital has not been measured in any satisfactory way. So far, each survey has used its own ad hoc...

The contribution is to analyze why harmful lobbyism against the transition to market economy takes place and to recommand how this important barrier to economic growth can be eliminated.