This paper analyzes the relations between social capital, institutions and trust. These concepts are full of ambiguity and confusion. This paper attempts to dissolve some of the confusion, by distinguishing trust and control, and analyzing institutional and relational conditions of trust. It...

This paper aims to identify the effect of political exclusion on social capital in Colombia, suggesting social capital as an important channel through which political inequality has been central for Colombian economic development. I use the Colombian National Front agreement during 1958-1974 to...

This article grapples with the causes of India's microfinance crisis. By contrasting Bangladesh's highly successful Grameen model with the allegedly “universalizable” version of India's SKS Microfinance (which precipitated the crisis), trust or social capital is isolated — not just...

Recent Eurobarometer survey data are used to document and explain the stock of social capital in 28 European countries. Social capital in Central and Eastern Europe - measured by civic participation and access to social networks - lags behind that in Western European countries. Using regression...

Purpose - The paper aims to examine the impact of social capital on the size of the shadow economy in the BIRCS countries over the period 1995–2014. Design/methodology/approach - The authors employ the Bayesian linear regression method to uncover the relationship between social capital and the...

Guilds are social scientists' favoured historical example of institutions generating a "social capital" of trust that benefited entire economies. This article considers this view in the light of empirical findings for early modern Europe. It draws the distinction between a "particularized" trust...

Lending to the poor is expensive due to high screening, monitoring, and enforcement costs. Group lending advocates believe lenders overcome this by harnessing social connections. Using data from FINCA-Peru, I exploit a quasi-random group formation process to find evidence of peers successfully...

This document uses an analytic-interpretive perspective to show the role that institutions and social capital have played in the economic performance of different regions, in particular in the department of Cauca, where historical dependence and the colonial heritage have been important causes...

Recent Eurobarometer survey data are used to document and explain the stock of social capital in 27 European countries. Social capital in Central and Eastern Europe - measured by civic participation and access to social networks - lags behind that in Western European countries. Using regression...

Williams C. C. (2005) Fostering community engagement and tackling undeclared work: the case for an evidence-based 'joined-up' public policy approach, Regional Studies 39 , 1145-1155. Examining two realms of public policy treated as unrelated by academics and policy-makers, namely fostering...