Social Capital and Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from Chinese Provinces |
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| Authors: | Ailun Xiong Hans Westlund Hongyi Li Yongjian Pu |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Administration, Chongqing Technology and Business University, China;2. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden;3. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong;4. Hunan University, China;5. Chongqing University, China |
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| Abstract: | The impact of social capital on economic development has been broadly studied by scholars. However, research in the Chinese context is relatively rare. Drawing upon data from the China General Social Survey, our results suggest that the enhancing effect of social capital on total factor productivity is very limited in the case of China. The network dimension of social capital is significant only in pooled OLS estimations, and trust as well as the participation dimension of social capital exert no impact across all estimations. Our interpretation is that this is partly due to the fact that trust, values and norms formed in civil society are inherently difficult to transmit to the market sector. Besides, the impact of social capital on economic performance is undermined when physical capital plays a significant role in production. We therefore propose that the effect of social capital on economic performance is contingent on localized social and economic conditions. |
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| Keywords: | economic performance social capital total factor productivity O30 O40 O50 |
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