DOES SOCIAL CAPITAL HAVE AN ECONOMIC PAYOFF - A CROSS-COUNTRY INVESTIGATION

This paper presents evidence that ''social capital'' matters for measu rable economic performance, using indicators of trust and civic norms from the World Values Surveys for a sample of 29 market economies. Mem berships in formal groups-Putnam's measure of social capital-is not as sociated with trust or with improved economic performance. We find tru st and civic norms are stronger in nations with higher and more equal incomes, with institutions that restrain predatory actions of chief ex ecutives, and with better-educated and ethnically homogeneous populati ons.