The role of social capital components on local economic growth: Local cohesion and openness in French rural areas

This paper investigates empirically the economic role of some sociological factors, such as the intensity and nature of local social relationships, on economic growth in rural areas at the micro level. We use the bonding/linking/bridging classification suggested in the social capital literature (Putnam, 2000; Woolcock, 1998). Bonding links consist of strong linkages between similar people, which ensure the stability of relationships, but tend to lead to inertia and closure. Bridging links are weak ties that often lead to valuable new opportunities. Linking social capital is an intermediate category that consists of links between people from different social categories. This form of social capital favors both stability and openness. We use French data to examine these three forms of social capital within a local population and employment growth model inspired by Boarnet (1994), and to evaluate their impacts on local economic growth. The results suggest that all three forms of social capital have a robust and positive role on change in rural population and employment.social capital, rural economic development, population and employment growth

Attitudes towards foreign products and welfare with capital mobility

We develop a model of trade with imperfect competition to study the welfare implications in developing and developed countries of the asymmetry in attitudes towards foreign products. In the developed country, consumers benefit from a better perception of foreign products while the rental rate of capital declines as long as the location of capital remains unchanged. However, when capital is mobile, the developing country hosts more and more capital at the expense of the developed country as perception of varieties produced in the developed country improves and the surplus of consumers in the developed country can decrease.product of origin, capital location, consumer’s surplus

Les relations sociales, frein ou moteur de la durabilité

Un mode de développement peut présenter des contradictions entre les différentes dimensions de la durabilité. Cet article montre l’intérêt de la notion de rayon de confiance pour évaluer la contribution des relations sociales à la durabilité du développement. Il décrit les mécanismes en jeu, et illustre l’évaluation du rayon de confiance dans six études de cas. La durabilité la plus forte apparaît en général associée à un niveau intermédiaire de rayon de confiance, qui permet de concilier ouverture à l’extérieur et stabilité des relations. L’article propose également des mesures quantitatives du rayon de confiance.Development paths may include contradictions between the different dimensions of sustainability. This article shows the usefulness of the notion of radius of trust in order to evaluate the contribution of social relationships to sustainability. It describes the mechanisms at play, and illustrates the assessment of the radius of trust in six case studies. The higher sustainability turns out to be generally associated with intermediate levels of radius of trust. Such an intermediate level allows to reconcile openness to external resources and stability of the relationships. The article also suggests quantitative measures of the radius of trusts

Ex-ante Policy Assessment of Agricultural, Environmental, and Rural Policies from an Institutional Perspective: The Procedure for Institutional Compatibility Assessment

Ex-ante impact assessment of agricultural, environmental, and rural policies has become an integral part of political decision making processes in the EU. While there is a large variety of agrienvironmental modelling tools available to analyse likely social, economic, and environmental impacts of these policies, scientifically well-founded ex-ante policy assessment tools capturing the institutional dimension are still missing. In this paper, we introduce a formalised procedure for modelling – ex-ante – institutional aspects for policy implementation: the ‘Procedure for Institutional Compatibility Assessment’ (PICA). PICA has been designed as an explorative, yet formalised methodology that enables policy makers to identify at an early stage potential institutional incompatibilities. After providing a brief overview of relevant approaches for policy assessment we elaborate on the four distinct steps of PICA and use a core element of the EU Nitrate Directive to illustrate its function.Methodology, Ex-ante Policy Assessment, Institutional Policy Assessment, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Fondements théoriques du développement local : quels apports du capital social et de l’économie de proximité ?

Si les principes du développement local se sont continuellement ancrés dans les pratiques et progressivement traduits par des préconisations concrètes en matière de développement, le concept demeure encore peu stabilisé dans la littérature. Du point de vue théorique, on admet qu’un territoire peut produire du développement selon la manière dont les agents qui s’y trouvent se coordonnent et s’organisent ou encore s’inscrivent dans des dynamiques sociales. A travers l’analyse du lien entre le développement des territoires et les formes d’organisation sociale qui les sous-tendent, nous tentons de conforter les bases théoriques du développement local. Nous nous appuyons, pour ce faire, sur les apports de l’économie de proximité et du capital social.Though the principles of local development are quite well established in concrete practices, the concept still remains vague in the literature. It is posited that territorial development is mainly based on social dynamics. The analysis of the relationship between local development and social organised forms seems then fundamental for a more comprehensive theory of local development. In that perspective, our contribution – which attempts to consolidate the theoretical framework of local development – mobilises the approaches of the economics of proximity and of social capital

Ex-ante policy assessment from an institutional perspective: a Procedure for Institutional Compatibility Assessment (PICA)

Ex-ante impact assessment of agricultural, environmental, and rural policies has become an integral part of political decision making processes in the EU. While there is a large variety of agri-environmental modelling tools available to analyse likely social, economic, and environmental impacts of these policies, scientifically well-founded ex-ante policy assessment tools capturing institutional dimensions are still missing. In this paper, we introduce a formalised procedure for modelling - ex-ante - institutional aspects for policy implementation: the 'Procedure for Institutional Compatibility Assessment' (PICA). It has recently been developed within the SEAMLESS project as a component of an integrative modelling framework for ex-ante assessment of policy impacts on sustainable development. PICA is based on the assumption that the effectiveness of a policy and the cost-effectiveness of its implementation largely depend on the degree of compatibility between this policy and the institutional context in the respective countries and regions. It has been designed as an explorative and flexible, yet formalised methodology that enables policy makers to identify at an early stage potential institutional incompatibilities. After providing a brief overview of relevant approaches for policy assessment we elaborate on the four distinct steps of PICA and use a core element of the EU Nitrate Directive to illustrate its function

Approach towards an operational tool to apply institutional analysis for the assessment of policy feasibility within SEAMLESS-IF

Environmental Economics and Policy,

Capital social et développement économique local. Pour une application aux espaces ruraux français

National audienceLe rôle des relations sociales dans le développement économique est depuis longtemps mis en avant par les tenants du développement local. Toutefois, il n'existe pas de cadre synthétique permettant d'étudier les relations diverses entre phénomènes économiques et sociaux. Les travaux récents autour de la notion de capital social ambitionnent de combler, au moins partiellement, cette lacune. Dans l'article, l'auteur présente les différents mécanismes par lesquels les caractéristiques sociologiques influent sur la performance économique, avant de montrer la pertinence de cette grille de lecture pour l'étude du développement rural

Quality labels and rural development: A new economic geography approach

Some rural development strategies are based on the assumption that quality labels may act as levers for inducing economic growth and population migration to rural areas. To investigate the validity of this assumption, we use a new economic geography model. A specific (“ labelled”) agricultural good is assumed to be produced by farmers who co-operate in order to set a monopoly price and control the number of producers. We find that there is a trade-off between the number of differentiated farmers and their individual income. Besides, the positive effect of agricultural differentiation on rural industrialization, due to increased demand for industrial goods, is offset by an opposite effect due to urban wages rise. Higher transport costs for the specific good favour rural industrialization but limit the size of the differentiated agricultural sector.Signes officiels de qualité et développement rural : une approche par la nouvelle économie géographique Certaines stratégies de développement rural reposent sur l’hypothèse que les signes de qualité peuvent engendrer, par effets induits, une croissance économique et l’arrivée de nouvelles populations et activités. Afin d’étudier la validité de cette hypothèse, un modèle d’économie géographique est proposé. Un bien agricole spécifique (“ label ”) est supposé être produit par des agriculteurs qui coopèrent pour fixer un prix de monopole et contrôler le nombre de producteurs. Il existe un arbitrage entre le nombre de producteurs de biens de qualité et leur revenu individuel. De plus, l’effet positif sur le développement rural dû à l’augmentation de la demande en provenance des agriculteurs est contrebalancé par un effet opposé dû à l’augmentation des salaires urbains. Un coût de transport supérieur pour le bien de qualité renforce l’effet positif sur l’industrialisation rurale, mais limite la taille du secteur agricole différencié.Callois Jean-Marc. Quality labels and rural development: A new economic geography approach. In: Cahiers d'Economie et sociologie rurales, N°78, 1er trimestre 2006. pp. 31-51