Open AccessRelational Costs and the Production of Social Capital: Evidence from Carpooling *
Author(s) -
Charles Kerwin Kofi,
Kline Patrick
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.683
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1468-0297
pISSN - 0013-0133
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2006.01093.x
Subject(s) - carpool , social capital , neighbourhood (mathematics) , race (biology) , variety (cybernetics) , economics , sorting , sociology , social reproduction , differential (mechanical device) , public economics , capital (architecture) , production (economics) , demographic economics , positive economics , social psychology , labour economics , microeconomics , psychology , geography , social science , gender studies , computer science , mathematical analysis , mathematics , archaeology , artificial intelligence , transport engineering , engineering , programming language , aerospace engineering
This article posits that individuals can more easily form social connections with people if they are of the same race. If true, the greater the incidence among his neighbours of persons of his race, the more likely an individual is to make neighbourhood social capital connections and the more likely he is to engage in activities which require it. The article tests this idea using an indicator of individual social capital never previously studied: whether the person uses a carpool to get to work. The analysis accounts for fixed differences across neighbourhoods, and a variety of extensions address possible differential racial sorting into neighbourhoods. The evidence strongly supports the article's hypothesis.