Measuring Social Capital

"Measuring Social Capital: An Integrated Questionnaire is part of the World Bank Working Paper series. These papers are published to communicate the results of the Bank's ongoing research and to stimulate public discussion." "The idea of social capital has enjoyed a remarkable rise to prominence in both the theoretical and the applied social science literature over the last decade. Though lively debate has accompanied that journey, thereby helping to advance our thinking and to clarify areas of agreement and disagreement, much still remains to be done. One approach that we hope can help bring further advances for both scholars and practitioners is the provision of a set of empirical tools for measuring social capital." "The purpose of this paper is to introduce such a tool with a focus on applications in developing countries. The tool aims to generate quantitative data on various dimensions of social capital as part of a larger household survey (such as the Living Standards Measurement Survey or a household income/expenditure survey). The paper also provides detailed guidance for the use and analysis of the data. We hope that better empirical information on social capital will lead to greater dialogue between researchers, policymakers, task managers, and poor people themselves - thus ultimately leading to the design and implementation of more effective poverty reduction strategies."--BOOK JACKET.