TY  - JOUR
AU  - Glaeser,Edward L.
AU  - Laibson,David
AU  - Sacerdote,Bruce
TI  - The Economic Approach to Social Capital
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7728
PY  - 2000
Y2  - June 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7728
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7728.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

Bruce Sacerdote
6106 Rockefeller Hall
Department of Economics
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755-3514
Tel: 603/646-2121
Fax: 603/646-2122
E-Mail: Bruce.I.Sacerdote@dartmouth.edu
AB  - To identify the determinants of social capital formation, it is necessary to understand the social capital investment decision of individuals.  Individual social capital should then be aggregated to measure the social capital of a community.  This paper assembles the evidence that supports the individual-based model of social capital formation, including seven facts: (1) the relationship between social capital and age is first increasing and then decreasing, (2) social capital declines with expected mobility, (3) social capital investment is higher in occupations with greater returns to social skills, (4) social capital is higher among homeowners, (5) social connections fall sharply with physical distance, (6) people who invest in human capital also invest in social capital, and (7) social capital appears to have interpersonal complementarities.
ER  -