The Role of Social Capital in Development: An Empirical Assessment

Christiaan Grootaert · Thierry van Bastelaer

ago 2002 · Cambridge University Press

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Previously the role of social capital - defined as the institutions and networks of relationships between people, and the associated norms and values - in programs of poverty alleviation and development has risen to considerable prominence. Although development practitioners have long suspected that social capital does affect the efficiency and quality of most development processes, this book provides the rigorous empirical results needed to confirm that impression and translate it into effective and informed policymaking. It is based on a large volume of collected data, relying equally on quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to establish approaches for measuring social capital and its impact. The book documents the pervasive role of social capital in accelerating poverty alleviation and rural development, facilitating the provision of goods and services, and easing political transition and recovery from civil conflicts.

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Christiaan Grootaert is Lead Economist in the Social Development Department at the World Bank, and Manager of the Social Capital Initiative. His research centres on the measurement and analysis of poverty, risk and vulnerability, education and labour markets, child labour, and the role of institutions and social capital in development, in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Recent publications include The Policy Analysis of Child Labor: A Comparative Study (with H. Patrinos) and Poverty and Social Assistance in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (with J. Braithwaite and B. Milanovic). He is co-author of the World Development Report 2000-2001: Attacking Poverty, and has contributed articles to various journals, including the Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Development Studies, World Development and Journal of African Economies.

Thierry van Bastelaer is the Director of the Integrated Financial Services Team at the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland. As a political economist, he has designed and implemented programs in a number of areas of economic development, including policy reform for private sector growth, legal and regulatory reform for microfinance, policy priorities for electronic commerce, small enterprise development, and corruption. His research is centered around the political economy of reform, social capital and microfinance. His articles have been published in several journals, including Public Choice, and he has worked extensively in South Asia.