Social Capital, Trust, and Economic Growth

Abstract

This contribution revisits the existing research in the field of social capital, trust, and economic growth, with the aim of elaborating a possible extension of the neo-classical model by incorporating social capital into its assumptions. It describes the state of the art and definition of social capital and interpersonal trust and discusses the positive and negative relationships between social capital, trust, and growth. It offers a brief discussion of the operationalization of social capital and provides an overview of the empirical findings to date with respect to social capital, trust, and growth. In its conclusions, this contribution calls for further research on the relationship between trust and economic growth.