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Community Development and Local Social Capital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2015

Jeffrey L. Jordan ,
Bulent Anil  and
Abdul Munasib
Jeffrey L. Jordan
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Georgia, Griffin, GA
Bulent Anil
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Duluth, MN
Abdul Munasib
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK
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Abstract

While a substantial amount of research has been devoted to showing what social capital does, research explaining social capital itself lags behind. The literature has a long tradition of examining the effect of social capital on local economic growth and development. In this paper we examine whether local economic development can explain the variation in social capital across various geographical clusters in the state of Georgia. We begin by devising a measurement tool, a Human Development Index (HDI), to measure community development. Our social capital measure includes associational memberships, voluntary activities, and philanthropy obtained from the Georgia Social Capital Survey. The findings show that even after accounting for various demographic and economic characteristics, the HDI explains the variation in a number of social capital levels (especially those measured by associational involvement) across various geographical clusters in the state of Georgia.

Keywords

economic developmenthuman developmentsocial capitalR00
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , February 2010 , pp. 143 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 2010

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