سرمایه اجتماعی و توزیع درآمد خانوار در ایالات متحده آمریکا : سال 1980، سال 1990، و 2000

Social capital is a person or group's sympathy or sense of obligation for another person or group. The objects of sympathetic feelings have social capital. Those holding sympathetic feelings for others provide social capital. Because social capital providers internalize the consequences of their choices on the objects of their social capital, they trade with each other on different terms and at different levels than would occur in arm's length transactions, all other things equal. Furthermore, changes in the distribution of social capital alter the terms and level of trade which in turn alter the distribution of income. This paper demonstrates mathematically the connection between changes in social capital and income distributions and then tests empirically the influence of social capital on household income distributions in the 50 U.S. states for the census years 1980, 1990, and 2000. The mathematical and empirical findings of this paper support the proposition that social capital measured by social capital indicator variables have important influences on the distribution of household incomes.

Social capital is a multi-disciplinary concept that has been employed to explain a variety of socio-economic phenomenon. This paper employs social capital to explain variations in household incomes across the 50 U.S. states for U.S. census years 1980, 1990, and 2000. The main connection between social capital and household income distributions is social capital's influence on the terms and level of trade which in turn alters the distribution of income. This study follows a similar work by Robison and Siles (1999, RS) who found support for the hypothesis that social capital measured by social capital indicator variables was a significant influence on the distributions of household incomes in the 50 U.S. states for the census years 1980 and 1990. In what follows we define social capital and explain why its applications in economics have been limited. Then, we introduce the concept of social capital into the standard neoclassical utility maximizing model and deduce several important outcomes. In particular we show that under certain conditions, increases in social capital can increase average income and reduce disparity of income between trading partners. In a later section, the macro consequences of social capital are examined. The macro analysis is based on the fundamental assumption that increasing specialization and trade increase productivity. Final sections of this paper examine the empirical evidence for social capital's influence on income distributions for the 50 U.S. states for census years 1980, 1990, and 2000. This paper concludes by restating earlier findings, that changes in social capital have important consequences on the distribution of household incomes in the U.S.

Including social capital in the neoclassical utility maximizing model allows us to model the important effects of relationships of sympathy (antipathy) or social capital have on terms of trade and likelihood of trades. The capital-like properties of social capital have been described elsewhere. The important point is that these capital-like properties allow economists to model social capital much like they might model the economic consequences of other forms of capital. What social capital provides are socio-emotional goods (SEGs) and services that are valued, much like the goods and services produced by other forms of capital like physical, human, and financial capital. Since SEGs may complement or substitute for financial services, their effects cannot be modeled in isolation without imposing seriously limiting assumptions. Thus, the interdependent nature of producing SEGs and other types of goods in utility maximizing models suggests significant opportunities for cooperation between economists and other social sciences. An empirical effort was made and reported in this paper to test the influence of social capital on terms of trade and likelihood of trades and by implication on the distribution of household income. The empirical results support the social capital model deductions-namely, that increases in social capital improve the likelihood of trades between friends and family when the buyer has a comparative advantage in the use of the traded asset. Additional deductions showed that increases in intensive and extensive levels of social capital have important and predictable consequences on the income distribution of social capital rich-networks-increases in social capital increase the average income and reduce income differences. In conclusion, social capital offers economists a new tool. It redefines externalities, broadens the definition of what is considered rational behavior, recognizes an important resource whose management offers new policy options, and suggests the need for increased cooperation among social sciences.