What Do Cross-Country Surveys Tell Us about Social Capital

Dados Bibliográficos

ID19316111
AutoresDavid Tannenbaum (0000-0002-6603-7370, University of Utah, autor correspondente), Alain Cohn (0000-0002-0145-1650, University of Michigan, autor correspondente), Christian Lukas Zünd (University of Zurich), Christian Zünd (0000-0002-4436-4071, University of Zurich, autor correspondente), Michel André Maréchal (0000-0002-6627-0252, University of Zurich and UC San Diego, autor correspondente)
Ano2025
Volume107
Fascículo1
Páginas142-151
Data de publicação2025-01-03
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Review of Economics and Statistics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0034-6535 • E-ISSN: 1530-9142
EditoraMIT Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1162/rest_a_01245
OpenAlexW3112540417
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas50

We assess the predictive power of survey measures of social capital with a new behavioral data set that examines whether citizens report a lost wallet to its owner. Using data from more than 17,000 lost wallets across 40 countries, we find that survey measures of social capital—especially questions concerning generalized trust or generalized morality—are strongly and significantly correlated with country-level differences in wallet reporting rates. A second finding is that lost wallet reporting rates predict unique variation in the outputs of social capital, such as economic development and government effectiveness, not captured by existing measures

Actuarial science · Business · Capital (architecture) · Demographic economics · Economics · General Social Survey · Geography · Government (linguistics) · Power (physics) · Predictive power · Public economics · Set (abstract data type) · Social capital · Social science · Sociology · Statistics · Survey data collection · Variation (astronomy) · World Values Survey · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Psychology · Social Capital and Networks · Social Psychology