Social Capital and Economic Growth: A Meta-Analysis

This study collects and analyses 993 estimates from 81 studies to generate an overall assessment of the empirical literature on social capital and economic growth. Using a variety of estimation procedures, we reach the following conclusions. First, there is evidence that a meaningful relationship exists between social capital and economic growth. The estimated sizes of the overall mean effect in our specifications range from somewhat larger than “small” to somewhat larger than “medium” depending on the estimation method we use. Second, our analysis does not indicate that the associated empirical literature is distorted by publication bias. Third, there is evidence to indicate that cognitive social capital (e.g., trust) has a larger effect on economic growth than other types of social capital, though the evidence is not strong. Finally, while the coefficient signs of our meta-regression analysis lined up with prior expectations, the associated effect sizes were generally small to negligible. The most noteworthy finding is that social capital is estimated to have a smaller effect on economic growth in the US compared to other parts of the world. JEL Classifications: B40, O31, O40, O47, R11, Z10