American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
The Role of Social Capital in Financial Development
American Economic Review
(pp. 526–556)
Abstract
To identify the effect of social capital on financial development, we exploit social capital differences within Italy. In high-social-capital areas, households are more likely to use checks, invest less in cash and more in stock, have higher access to institutional credit, and make less use of informal credit. The effect of social capital is stronger where legal enforcement is weaker and among less educated people. These results are not driven by omitted environmental variables, since we show that the behavior of movers is still affected by the level of social capital of the province where they were born.Citation
Guiso, Luigi, Paola Sapienza, and Luigi Zingales. 2004. "The Role of Social Capital in Financial Development." American Economic Review 94 (3): 526–556. DOI: 10.1257/0002828041464498Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D14 Household Saving; Personal Finance
- O16 Economic Development: Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
- Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Social and Economic Stratification