At this workshop a number of papers from the Bank of Italy's research project "Social capital, behaviours, and institutions" were presented.
The focus of the first session was on the mechanisms that might enhance the accumulation of social capital. For instance, there was a discussion about the role of economic growth and that of income distribution in increasing trust and civicness.
The second session concentrated on the effects of social capital, with a particular emphasis on the public sector and the credit market.
For instance, it was shown that the local endowments of social capital have likely cushioned the impact of the credit crunch on households and firms; moreover, it was argued that informal norms might explain a great deal of the variability in the quality of public services observed across Italy's regions.
A previous workshop (November 2012) focused on the definitional aspects and measurement issues of social capital. The research project will be finalized by Spring 2014.
