People organize and participate in voluntary associations since voluntary associations provide social capital, such as norms of reciprocity, citizenship, social trust, and networks of social relations. Comparative analysis of voluntary associations in South Korea and Sweden reveals, first, that...

This paper carries out an empirical assessment of the influence relationship between personal attitudes and several measures of social capital in some Central European Countries (CEC). Using the World Values Survey dataset, the model measures three main social capital dimensions (institutional...

For how long does cultural heritage persist? Do the culturally inherited values of immigrants dilute as generations pass? We answer these question by studying the relationship between revealed political behavior of immigrant families and the culture of the place where they migrated from, either...

Social and/or political involvement within the population is often argued to enhance public sector performance. The underlying idea is that engagement fosters political awareness and interest and increases the public?s monitoring ability. Still, although extensive voter involvement may put...

As membership in traditional civic organizations declines in the United States (Putnam, 2000), could volunteering for nonprofit organizations be an alternative source of social capital formation? We use an updated household production framework (Becker, 1996) to theoretically connect...

There are multiple dimensions of trust. The standard meaning I call "strategic trust." But more important is "moralistic trust," which does not stem from experience, but rather is learned early in life and is largely stable over time. Moralistic trust leads people to do good works such as...

We use the household production framework to theoretically connect sociability and purposive incentives for volunteering and two forms of social capital: social connections and civic capacity. Then, using a unique statewide data set, we estimate the determinants of (a) the probability of...

Many scholars have documented the important role of national environmental groups in affecting environmental policies in the United States. The role of local environmental groups, however, has not been thoroughly documented. Using data from a complete census of all environmental groups in two...