TY  - JOUR
AU  - Durlauf,Steven N.
AU  - Fafchamps,Marcel
TI  - Social Capital
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10485
PY  - 2004
Y2  - May 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10485
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10485.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Steven N. Durlauf
Department of Economics
University of Wisconsin
1180 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI  53706-1393
Tel: 608/263-3859
Fax: 608/262-2033
E-Mail: sdurlauf@ssc.wisc.edu

Marcel Fafchamps
Oxford University
E-Mail: marcel.fafchamps@economics.ox.ac.uk
AB  - This paper surveys research on social capital. We explore the concepts that motivate the social capital literature, efforts to formally model social capital using economic theory, the econometrics of social capital, and empirical studies of the role of social capital in various socioeconomic outcomes. While our focus is primarily on the place of social capital in economics, we do consider its broader social science context. We argue that while the social capital literature has produced many insights, a number of conceptual and statistical problems exist with the current use of social capital by social scientists. We propose some ways to strengthen the social capital literature.
ER  -