This report centers on the problems stemming from land issues in Nicaragua. The report's main recommendations deal with four priority actions: institutional reform; adjustments to the legal framework; systematic regularization of land rights; and, firmly addressing previous land invasions, and...

"This paper attempts to quantify the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on social capital with cross-country data. Using data from the World Values Survey, the authors estimate reduced-form regressions of the main determinants of social capital controlling for HIV prevalence, institutional quality,...

"This paper explores the social capital impacts of a large-scale, community-driven development project in the Philippines in which communities competed for block grants for infrastructure investment. The analysis uses a unique data set of about 2,100 households collected before the project...

The baseline survey of the KALAHI-CIDSS project in the Philippines is an attempt to generate such insights and strengthen learning about CDD programs through rigorous evaluations. This evaluation follows the "good practices" prescribed by experts in that it collects quality baseline data in a...

The primary objective of this article is to present nugormesese as an indigenous mechanism of social capital in Buem-Kator, a farming community on the Ghana side of the Ghana-Togo border area. The concept of social capital will be minimally defined to refer to the capability of social norms and...

The study looks at recent analytical work concerning social issues in Argentina, which suggest both inequality, and unemployment are worsening, aggravated by pessimism and despair - partly shaped by a recession of almost three years - as well as by the inadequacy of public institutions. This...

"The authors explore the relationship between transaction costs and generalized trust. Using panel data from 2,100 households in 135 rural communities of the Philippines, the paper shows that where transaction costs are reduced (proxied by road construction), there is an increase in generalized...