Trustworthiness and Social Capital in South Africa

Analysis of Actual Living Standards Data and Artifactual Field Experiments

Bibliographic Data

ID4940171
AuthorsM Carter (0000-0003-0960-9181, University of California, Davis), Michael R Carter, Marco Castillo (0000-0003-0756-7184, George Mason University)
Year2011
Volume59
Issue4
Pages695-722
Publication date2011-07-01
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)
DOI10.1086/660000
OpenAlexW2172321619
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited44

This article measures trustworthiness using an experimental protocol designed to distinguish this social norm from purely altruistic preferences. Experimental participants were drawn from South African households surveyed by a longitudinal living standards study. This procedure not only permits analysis of the impact of experimentally measured social norms on real-world outcomes but also provides a rich array of data that can be used to control for initial conditions and prior possibilities that might be spuriously correlated with norms. Interestingly, altruism has more robust effects on living standards than does trustworthiness, though both are statistically signficant. This finding motivates a deeper reconsideration on how trusts works, especially in societies like South Africa’s, where the boundaries of trust are by a history of social exclusion and segregation

Altruism (biology) · Economics · Experimental economics · Field (mathematics) · Microeconomics · Norm (philosophy) · Political science · Positive economics · Social capital · Social science · Sociology · Trustworthiness · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Law · Psychology · Social Capital and Networks · Social Psychology

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