Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP5068
Authors: Jan Fidrmuc; Klarita Grxhani
Abstract: Recent Eurobarometer survey data are used to document and explain the stock of social capital in 27 European countries. Social capital in Central and Eastern Europe – measured by civic participation and access to social networks – lags behind that in Western European countries. Using regression analysis of determinants of individual stock of social capital, we find that this gap persists when we account for individual characteristics and endowments of respondents but disappears completely after we control for aggregate measures of economic development and quality of institutions. Informal institutions such as prevalence of corruption appear particularly important.
Keywords: capitalism; institutions; social capital; transition
JEL Codes: O17; O57; P37; Z13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| economic development (O29) | social capital (Z13) |
| institutional quality (L15) | social capital (Z13) |
| corruption (D73) | social capital (Z13) |
| individual characteristics (Z13) | social capital (Z13) |
| aggregate economic development (O49) | social capital (Z13) |
| aggregate institutional quality (C43) | social capital (Z13) |