The Environmental Kuznets Curve Under a New framework: Role of Social Capital in Water Pollution

problem and the misuse of public goods while at the same time increasing investments in
public goods.” The result of these studies suggest that social capital has an significant
influence on economic growth so it can has impact on environmental quality such as
water quality too.

Measuring of social capital

One way of measuring social capital is measuring activities and strengths of civic
organization by the number of organization per capita. Following Rupasingha et al. in
this paper we use a secondary data set for 53 Louisiana parishes by using the Country
Business Patterns (CBP) compiled by the Census Bureau, which includes an extensive
and comprehensive set of variables representing membership organizations. Associations
such as sports clubs, labor unions and religious organizations are direct means of
community interaction and their frequency is considered a measure of social capital
(Ruspasingha et al.). Our main measure is the density per 10,000 persons from 1988 to
1997 for following establishment in each county:

1- Total amusing and recreation services

a- Dance studios, schools, and halls

b- Bowling centers

c- Music, amusement, recreation services.

d- Public golf courses

e- Membership sports and recreation clubs

2- Total membership organizations
a- Business associations

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