TY  - JOUR
AU  - Glaeser,Edward L.
AU  - Laibson,David
AU  - Scheinkman,Jose A.
AU  - Soutter,Christine L.
TI  - What is Social Capital?  The Determinants of Trust and Trustworthiness
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7216
PY  - 1999
Y2  - July 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7216
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7216.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Edward L. Glaeser
Department of Economics
315A Littauer Center
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-0575
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: eglaeser@harvard.edu

David Laibson
Department of Economics
Littauer M-12
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/496-3402
Fax: 617/495-8570
E-Mail: dlaibson@gmail.com

Jose A. Scheinkman
Department of Economics
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ  08544-1021
Tel: 609/258-4020
Fax: 609/258-0771
E-Mail: joses@princeton.edu
AB  - Using a sample of Harvard undergraduates, we analyze trust and social capital in two experiments.  Trusting behavior and trustworthiness rise with social connection; differences in race and nationality reduce the level of trustworthiness.  Certain individuals appear to be persistently more trusting, but these people do not say they are more trusting in surveys.  Survey questions about trust predict trustworthiness not trust.  Only children are less trustworthy.  People behave in a more trustworthy manner towards higher status individuals, and therefore status increases earnings in the experiment.  As such, high status persons can be said to have more social capital.
ER  -