Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T06:05:17.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Opening the Black Box of Social Capital Formation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2014

PATRICIO VALDIVIESO*
Affiliation:
Universidad de los Lagos
BENJAMÍN VILLENA-ROLDÁN*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Chile
*
Patricio Valdivieso is Associate Professor at the Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Local y Regional, Universidad de los Lagos, and is associated with ORPAS, Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins. República 590, Santiago, Chile ([email protected]).
Benjamín Villena-Roldán is Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Center for Applied Economics, Universidad de Chile, República 701, Santiago, Chile ([email protected]).

Abstract

This paper introduces a rational choice model for multiple kinds of participation to empirically investigate several theoretical determinants of social capital (SC) formation. The framework is rich enough to investigate the importance of individual variables, social/peer effects, endogenous trust, political-institutional, and inequality factors as sources of participation. We show that the aforementioned contextual factors explain SC formation for Chile, but their relative importance varies for each kind of participation. Our second application compares individual-level determinants of SC formation among the largest democracies in the Americas. Gender, age, education, and race show heterogeneous effects across countries. Overall, negative interpersonal trust shocks generate participation increments, and possibly motivate engagement in trustworthy networks. Idiosyncratic factors behind participation and trust are positively correlated, suggesting a common SC stem that manifests in multiple ways. Hence, our empirical approach to SC formation uncovers factors hidden by assumptions in some previous literature.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alesina, A., and La Ferrara, E.. 2000. “Participation in Heterogeneous Communities.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 115 (3): 847904.Google Scholar
Alesina, A., and La Ferrara, E.. 2002. “Who Trusts Others?Journal of Public Economics 85 (2): 207–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angrist, J. D., Graddy, K., and Imbens, G. W.. 2000. “The Interpretation of Instrumental Variables Estimators in Simultaneous Equations Models with an Application to the Demand for Fish.” The Review of Economic Studies 67 (3): 499527.Google Scholar
Angrist, J. D., and Pischke, J.-S.. 2009. Mostly Harmless Econometrics—An Empiricist Companion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bjørnskov, C. 2006. “The Multiple Facets of Social Capital.” European Journal of Political Economy 22: 2240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borgonovi, F. 2012. “The Relationship Between Education and Levels of Trust and Tolerance in Europe.” The British Journal of Sociology 63 (1): 146–67.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1980. “Le Capital Social. Notes Provisoires.” Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales 31: 23.Google Scholar
Brehm, J., and Rahn, W.. 1997. “Individual-Level Evidence for the Causes and Consequences of Social Capital.” American Journal of Political Science 41 (3): 9991023.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chong, A., Fleming, D., and Bejarano, H.. 2011. “Trust and Trustworthiness in the Aftermath of Natural Disasters: Experimental Evidence from the 2010 Chilean Earthquake.” Working Paper 15, Institute for International Economic Policy.Google Scholar
Coleman, J. S. 1990. Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cragg, J. G., and Donald, S. G.. 1993, April. “Testing Identifiability and Specification in Instrumental Variable Models.” Econometric Theory 9 (02): 222–40.Google Scholar
David, Q., Janiak, A., and Wasmer, E.. 2010. “Local Social Capital and Geographical Mobility.” Journal of Urban Economics 68 (2): 191204.Google Scholar
Davidson-Schmich, L. K. 2006. “Searching for the Origins of Civic Community in Central Europe: Evidence from Eastern and Western Germany.” Democratization 13 (1): 95115.Google Scholar
Degli Antoni, G. 2009. “Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivations to Volunteer and Social Capital Formation.” Kyklos 62 (3): 359–70.Google Scholar
Durlauf, S. 2002. “On the Empirics of Social Capital.” The Economic Journal 112 (483): 459–79.Google Scholar
Freitag, M. 2006. “Bowling the State Back In: Political Institutions and the Creation of Social Capital.” European Journal of Political Research 45 (1): 123–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geweke, J., and Keane, M.. 2001. Computationally Intensive Methods for Integration in Econometrics, Volume 5 of Handbook of Econometrics, Chapter 56. Elsevier, 3463–568.Google Scholar
Glaeser, E., Laibson, D., and Sacerdote, B.. 2002. “An Economic Approach to Social Capital.” The Economic Journal 112 (483): 437–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaeser, E. L., Laibson, D., Scheinkman, J., and Soutter, C.. 2000. “Measuring Trust.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 115 (3): 811–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guiso, L., Sapienza, P., and Zingales, L.. 2004. “The Role of Social Capital in Financial Development.” American Economic Review 94 (3): 526–56.Google Scholar
Hagopian, F., and Mainwaring, S.. 2005. The Third Wave of Democratization in Latin America: Advances and Setbacks. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hero, R. E. 2007. Racial Diversity and Social Capital: Equality and Community in America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hiskey, J. T., and Bowler, S.. 2005. “Local Context and Democratization in Mexico.” American Journal of Political Science 49 (1): 5771.Google Scholar
Joignant, A. 2012. ¿Descentralización funcional o territorial? Elementos de sociología de los actores políticos en tres regiones de Chile (1989–2009). Nueva Agenda de Descentralización en Chile. Sentando más actores a la mesa. Ril Editores, pp. 511–58.Google Scholar
Kalter, E., Phillips, S., Espinosa-Vega, M., Luzio, R., Villafuerte, M., and Singh, M.. 2004. “Chile: Institutions and Policies Underpinning Stability and Growth.” Technical Report 231, International Monetary Fund.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keele, L. 2005. “Macro Measures and Mechanics of Social Capital.” Political Analysis 13 (2): 139–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, J.-Y. 2005. ““Bowling Together” isn't a Cure-All: The Relationship between Social Capital and Political Trust in South Korea.” International Political Science Review 26 (2): 193213.Google Scholar
Kleibergen, F., and Paap, R.. 2006. “Generalized Reduced Rank Tests Using the Singular Value Decomposition.” Journal of Econometrics 133 (1): 97126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klesner, J. L. 2007. “Social Capital and Political Participation in Latin America: Evidence from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Peru.” Latin American Research Review 42 (2): 132.Google Scholar
Knack, S., and Keefer, P.. 1997. “Does Social Capital have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-Country Investigation.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 112 (4): 1251–88.Google Scholar
Lederman, D., Loayza, N., and Soares, R.. 2005. “Accountability and Corruption: Political Institutions Matter.” Economics & Politics 17 (1): 135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Letki, N. 2006. “Investigating the Roots of Civic Morality: Trust, Social Capital, and Institutional Performance.” Political Behavior 28 (4): 305–25.Google Scholar
Letki, N. 2008. “Does Diversity Erode Social Cohesion? Social Capital and Race in British Neighbourhoods.” Political Studies 56 (1): 99126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maloney, W. A., van Deth, J. W., and Roßteutscher, S.. 2008. “Civic Orientations: Does Associational Type Matter?Political Studies 56 (2): 261–87.Google Scholar
Manski, C. F. 1993. “Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem.” The Review of Economic Studies 60 (3): 531–42.Google Scholar
Manzano, S. 2004. “Mas Capital: Latino Politics And Social Capital.” Ph.D. thesis. The University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Manzano, S. 2007. Bonding and Bridging. Latinos and Social Capital. Chapter 3. Latino Politics: Identity, Mobilization, and Representation. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, pp. 123–41.Google Scholar
McLaren, L. M., and Baird, V. A.. 2006. “Of Time and Causality: A Simple Test of the Requirement of Social Capital in Making Democracy Work in Italy.” Political Studies 54 (4): 889–97.Google Scholar
Migheli, M. 2012. “Assessing Trust Through Social Capital? A Possible Experimental Answer.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 71 (2): 298327.Google Scholar
Morjé, M., and Gilbert, L.. 2008. “A Cross-National Comparison of the Internal Effects of Participation in Voluntary Organizations.” Political Studies 56 (1): 1232.Google Scholar
Newton, K. 2006. “Political Support: Social Capital, Civil Society and Political and Economic Performance.” Political Studies 54 (4): 846–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, F. H., and Kaniasty, K.. 1994. “Psychological Distress following Criminal Victimization in the General Population: Cross-sectional, Longitudinal, and Prospective Analyses.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 62 (1): 111.Google Scholar
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2013. “National Urban Policy Reviews. The Case of Chile.” Technical report, OECD, Territorial Development Policy Committee. Available online at http://search.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=GOV/TDPC/URB(2012)13&docLanguage=En.Google Scholar
Oxendine, A., Sullivan, J. L., Borgida, E., Riedel, E., Jackson, M., and Dial, J.. 2007. “The Importance of Political Context for Understanding Civic Engagement: A Longitudinal Analysis.” Political Behavior 29:3167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, R. 1993. Making Democracy Work. Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (with R. Leonardi and R. Nanetti).Google Scholar
Putnam, R. D. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Roodman, D. 2011, June. “Fitting Fully Observed Recursive Mixed-process Models with cmp”. Stata Journal 11 (2): 159206.Google Scholar
Rossteutscher, S. 2008. Social Capital and Civic Engagement: A Comparative Perspective, Chapter 8. The Handbook of Social Capital. Oxford University Press, pp. 208–40.Google Scholar
Rothstein, B., and Stolle, D.. 2008. Political Institutions and Generalized Trust, Chapter 10. The Handbook of Social Capital. Oxford University Press, pp. 273302.Google Scholar
Sabatini, F., Cáceres, G., and Cerda, J.. 2001. “Residential Segregation in the main Chilean cities: Trends in the Last Three Decades and Possible Courses of Action.” EURE (Santiago) 27 (82): 2142. (In Spanish).Google Scholar
Sovey, A. J., and Green, D. P.. 2011. “Instrumental Variables Estimation in Political Science: A Readers' Guide.” American Journal of Political Science 55 (1): 188200.Google Scholar
Stock, J. H., and Yogo, M.. 2005. Testing for Weak Instruments in Linear IV Regression. Identification and Inference for Econometric Models: Essays in Honor of Thomas Rothenberg. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 80108.Google Scholar
Terza, J. V. 1987. “Estimating Linear Models with Ordinal Qualitative Regressors.” Journal of Econometrics 34 (3): 275–91.Google Scholar
Tesei, A. 2012. “Racial Fragmentation, Income Inequality and Social Capital: New Evidence from the US.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Torcal, M., and Mainwaring, S.. 2003. “The Political Recrafting of Social Bases of Party Competition: Chile, 1973–95.” British Journal of Political Science 33: 5584.Google Scholar
Train, K. 2009. Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation, second edition. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Uslaner, E. M. 2002. The Moral Foundations of Trust. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Uslaner, E. M. 2008. Trust as a Moral Value, Chapter 4. The Handbook of Social Capital. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 101–21.Google Scholar
Valdivieso, P. 1998. “Ética Política y Éxito Moral.” Revista de Ciencia Política 19 (2): 344.Google Scholar
Valenzuela, J. S., Scully, T. R., and Somma, N.. 2007. “The Enduring Presence of Religion in Chilean Ideological Positionings and Voter Options.” Comparative Politics, 1–20.Google Scholar
van Oorschot, W., and Finsveen, E.. 2009. “The Welfare State and Social Capital Inequality. An Empirical Exploration using Longitudinal European/World Values Study data from 13 Western Welfare States.” European Societies 11 (2): 383407.Google Scholar
Van Praag, B. M., and Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A.. 2008. Happiness Quantified: A Satisfaction Calculus Approach. Revised edition, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Von Erlach, E. 2005. “Politisierung in Vereinen. Eine empirische Studie zum Zusammenhang zwischen der Vereinsmitgliedschaft und der Teilnahme an politischen Diskussionen.” Swiss Political Science Review 11 (3): 2759.Google Scholar
Wagle, D. R. 2006. “Political Participation and Civic Engagement in Kathmandu: An Empirical Analysis with Structural Equations.” International Political Science Review 27 (3): 301–22.Google Scholar
Watson, T., Carlino, G., and Ellen, I. G.. 2006. “Metropolitan Growth, Inequality, and Neighborhood Segregation by Income.” Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, 1–52.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Valdivieso and Villena-Roldán Supplementary Material

Appendix

Download Valdivieso and Villena-Roldán Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 346.3 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.