Social Capital and Basic Goods

The Cautionary Tale of Drinking Water in India

Bibliographic Data

ID4360468
AuthorsSripad Motiram (0000-0001-8239-7918, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research), Lars Osberg (0000-0001-9643-9269, Dalhousie University)
Year2010
Volume59
Issue1
Pages63-94
Publication date2010-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomic Development and Cultural Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0079 • E-ISSN: 1539-2988
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/649640
PMID20821893
OpenAlexW1535137514
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited19

This study uses micro-data from the 1998-99 Indian Time Use Survey (ITUS; covering 77,593 persons in 18,591 households in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Orissa, and Haryana) to argue that time use data provides a natural metric for measuring "social capital" building activities and for distinguishing between the relative importance of "bonding" into groups or "bridging" within communities. The study examines the correlation between inequality in landownership, caste status, measures of local social capital, and whether or not a household will have to collect water. In India, the probability that a rural household fetches water is 4.8% and 9.1% lower in communities in which the average time spent on social interaction and community-based activities at the district-level doubles, but it is 18.9% greater when the time in group-based activities doubles. Inequalities in landownership and home ownership are associated with considerably larger differences in local tap water availability

Caste · Demographic economics · Economics · Geography · Inequality · Political science · Social capital · Social science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Tamil · Mathematics · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion · Social Capital and Networks · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

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