SOCIAL CAPITAL AND ORGANIZATIONS

An organization is a group of persons who satisfy an established membership requirement. Membership requirements may be based on inherited or earned traits. Organizations provide a place for social capital to reside. Organizations exist because they provide the setting in which members can meet their economic, social, validation, and information needs. As the needs of members change, membership requirements and organizational emphasis may also change. Relationships among an organization's members range from antipathetic to sympathetic. Depending on the quality of relationships or social capital within an organization, power will be exercised using a stick, carrot, and hug. Organizations may experience conflict if members perceive they must compete with each other to satisfy their needs. Finally, in a two-person relationship, social capital is likely to be symmetric or exploitation may exist. In more complicated relationships, social capital is likely to satisfy adding up constraints.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

SOCIAL CAPITAL: SYMPATHY, SOCIO-EMOTIONAL GOODS, AND INSTITUTIONS

This paper summarizes the current state of the social capital paradigm from the viewpoint of the authors. The paper presents and defends a social capital definition based on sympathetic relationships. The paper also summarizes an expanded set of rational preferences that depend on social capital. Then, the paper describes the origin of social capital and its economic consequences, and introduces the concept of socio-emotional goods. Socio-emotional goods may attach themselves to physical goods and services. When this happens, physical goods and services are exchanged on terms different than those values established in an arm's-length market or in exchanges between strangers. It is possible to invest in social capital and this paper reviews several opportunities for social capital investment. Moving from a micro to a macro focus in the study of social capital directs the paper's focus from informal to formal institutions. Finally, the paper summarizes agreed-on social capital principles that suggest that the social capital paradigm is maturing. Key Words: earned kernels, inherited kernels, institutions and networks, social capital, socio-emotional goodsearned kernels, inherited kernels, institutions and networks, social capital, socio-emotional goods, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

SOCIAL CAPITAL, THE TERMS OF TRADE, AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME

Social capital, a person or group's sympathy or sense of obligation for another person or group, assumes relationships can alter the terms of trade and the likelihood of trades between individuals. Other important economic consequences of social capital result from its ability to internalize externalities. This paper introduces social capital into the neoclassical model to derive forecasts of how relationships will alter the minimum-sell prices of farmland and the likelihood of trades between persons with different relationships. Also deduced in this paper is the effect of social capital on the level and dispersion of benefits from trade. Empirical evidence from a 1,500 farmland owner-operator survey is analyzed and provides support for the social capital paradigm.Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Relations/Trade,

IS SOCIAL CAPITAL REALLY CAPITAL?

Social capital in the past two decades has emerged as a dominant paradigm in the various social science disciplines. However, its adoption by the different social science disciplines has led to multiple and often conflicting definitions of social capital. Some differences in the definition of social capital can be explained because scientists have included in the definition expressions of its possible uses, where it resides, and how its service capacity can be changed. This paper defends the social capital metaphor by pointing out that social capital has many important capital-like properties including service potential, durability, flexibility, substitutability, opportunities for decay (maintenance), reliability, ability to create other capital forms, and investment (disinvestment) opportunities. Social capital is compared to other forms of capital including cultural capital and human capital. Keywords: social capital, cultural capital, human capital, physical/financial capital, service potential, durability, flexibility, substitutability, decay (maintenance), reliability, investment (disinvestment)social capital, cultural capital, human capital, physical/financial capital, service potential, durability, flexibility, substitutability, decay (maintenance), reliability, investment (disinvestment), Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND POVERTY REDUCTION: TOWARD A MATURE PARADIGM

Introduction The purposes of this paper are: (1) to introduce the social capital paradigm; (2) to present evidence that social capital has an important role in poverty reduction; and (3) to suggest several policy prescriptions for building and using social capital to reduce poverty. The social capital paradigm includes social capital, networks, socio-emotional goods, attachment values, institutions, and power. Social capital is a person or group's sympathy for others. Social capital resides in sympathetic relationships that can be described using networks. One reason to value social capital is because it can produce economic benefits and if neglected, economic disadvantages. Another reason to value social capital is because it can be used to produce socio-emotional goods. Sometimes socio-emotional goods become embedded in objects. When this occurs, the meaning and value of the object change. The change in the value of an object produced by embedded socio-emotional goods is the object's attachment value. Individuals exchange both physical and socio-emotional goods. Institutions are the rules that order and give meaning to exchanges. Institutions with high attachment values are more likely to be observed than those whose compliance depends on economic incentives or threats. Finally, power, the ability to influence others, depends on one's resources, including one's social capital. In most personalized transactions, persons exchange both socio-emotional goods and physical goods and services. Moreover, the relative amounts of socio-emotional goods and physical goods and services exchanged will alter the levels and terms of trade when measured in physical units. Since one's ability to include socio-emotional goods in exchanges for physical goods and services depends on one's social capital, the terms and levels of exchange of physical goods and services will be influenced by the transacting party's social capital. Those with high levels of social capital will have advantages over those who lack social capital because they can exchange both socio-emotional goods and physical goods and services. Furthermore, since social capital alters the terms and levels of trade and the terms and levels of trade influence the distribution of incomes derived from trades, then social capital also has an important influence on the distribution of household income and poverty. Some evidence suggests that the distribution of social capital in networks and the distribution of household incomes are connected.Food Security and Poverty, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

THE SOCIAL CAPITAL FOUNDATIONS OF TRUST IN GLOBAL AGRI-FOOD SYSTEM TRANSACTIONS

The concept of social capital is defined as a third process (along with individual incentives and authority relationships) for assuring transaction cost efficiency. Social capital is especially relevant to international transactions because cultural differences, large distances, and limited international institutional scope lessen the effectiveness of incentives and authority relationships while social capital can be built within the context of specific international transactions. Methods for building social capital in international settings are explored. A research agenda is articulated as well as a list of managerial implications for using social capital in an international context.Agribusiness,

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND HOUSEHOLD INCOME DISTRIBUTIONS: EVIDENCE FROM MICHIGAN AND ILLINOIS

Social capital is a resource increasingly recognized as having important economic and social consequences. Robison and Siles (1999) examined some of these consequences at the U.S. state level and this study extends their efforts. Their 1999 study found important connections between the distributions of social capital and the distributions of household incomes. This study asks if the relationships between social capital and household incomes discovered at the state level are also present at the community level.Consumer/Household Economics, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Cystic Echinococcosis in Spain: Current Situation and Relevance for Other Endemic Areas in Europe

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) remains an important health problem in many regions of the world, both where no control measures have been implemented, and where control programs have been incompletely successful with ensuing re-emergence of the disease. In Spain, official data on CE show an increase in the proportion of intermediate hosts with CE during the last few years, and autochthonous pediatric patients have been reported, a sign of active local transmission of disease. A similar picture emerges from data reported to the European Food Safety Authority by other European countries. Nevertheless, several crucial aspects related to CE that would help better understand and control the disease have not been tackled appropriately, in particular the emergence of infection in specific geographical areas. In this respect, while some data are missing, other data are conflicting because they come from different databases. We review the current situation of CE in Spain compared with areas in which similar problems in the CE field exist, and offer recommendations on how to overcome those limitations. Specifically, we believe that the introduction of national registries for CE with online data entry, following the example set by the European Registry for Alveolar Echinococcosis, would help streamline data collection on CE by eliminating the need for evaluating and integrating data from multiple regions, by avoiding duplication of data from patients who access several different health facilities over time, and by providing much needed clinical and epidemiological data that are currently accessible only to clinicians

El paradigma del capital social

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