49132717X dc bibtex

Middle-class consensus, social capital and the mechanics of economic development / Stefan Dietrich Josten

Englisch

Hamburg, 2005

Hamburg : HSU Univ. d. Bundeswehr

Online Ressource (401 KB, Text)

Systemvoraussetzungen: Acrobat reader

Druckausg.: Josten, Stefan Dietrich *1969-*: Middle-class consensus, social capital and the mechanics of economic development. - Hamburg, 2005. - 25 Bl

URN: urn:nbn:de:gbv:705-opus-16626

Entwicklung / Mittelschicht / Sozialkapital / Endogenes Wachstumsmodell / Transaktionskosten / Theorie

Arbeitspapier / Working paper / Graue Literatur / Non-commercial literature / Buch / Book / Online-Publikation / Online publication / Als Aufsatz endgültig erschienen / Also available as published article

Regensburger Verbund-Klassifikation:

• QB 910: Q Wirtschaftswissenschaften / QB Allgemeines. Methoden der Wirtschaftswissenschaften. Unterrichts- und Ausbildungsmethoden in den Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftspädagogik / Aufsatzsammlungen vermischten Inhalts

This paper analyzes a heterogeneous-agents endogenous-growth model incorporating both transaction costs and social capital. An individual can either become an active part of the society’s middle-class networks of trust and mutual cooperation, thus making a positive contribution to overall social capital. Alternatively, the individual can stay socially disintegrated and free-ride on the community’s social capital. Due to the existence of asymmetric information, agents face a moral-hazard problem on the credit market which gives rise to transaction costs and can be alleviated by private, governmental or social governance structures. An increase in inequality and shrinking of the middle class depresses the community’s social capital, which, in turn, weakens the informal social governance system and increases economy-wide transaction costs. As a result a more unequal distribution lowers the economy’s growth rate.