the linkage between levels of social capital and collective outcomes; high levels of social
capital appear to be crucial for such measures of collective well-being as economic
development, effective political institutions, low crime rates, and lower incidences of
other social problems.” Putnam argues that provided public services by government in
central and northern of Italy has been more effective in regions that have had more civic
minded (Knack et al).
As we see social capital influences almost all aspects of society from individual
behavior to government performance. A society with a good stock of social capital has
less selfish behavior and more cooperative individual, more efficient institutions, and
better performance government.
Social Capital and Economic Performance
Economic, sociology, and regional science literature review show that ‘non-
economic” factors influence economic growth. Sometimes higher level of social capital
and stronger civic organization can create more capacity for local economic development
than markets and political institutions.
Coffey and Polese argue that socio-cultural and behavioral attributes of the local
population along with other variables have an important role in economic development.
From Putnam’s point of view, social capital is a set of “horizontal associations” among
people or “networks of civic engagement”. In his study of Italian region, he demonstrated
that northern Italy in compare to southern Italy is relatively more successful because
horizontal associations are more frequent in northern Italy. Rupasingha et al. estimated
the effect of social capital on economic growth for U.S. counties and found that social