Social capital, institutions and economic performance in times of crisis

In collaboration with:

Objectives

The interest in understanding the role of social capital on important issues such as institutional reliability, income disparities or economic development has witnessed a remarkable progress in recent times. The discussion gains momentum if we factor in the difficult economic scenario in many European economies and the varying levels of social capital present in each country. This workshop aims to contribute to this topic by examining state-of-the-art contributions by scholars specialized in the broad field of social capital.

It is well known that one of the difficulties when evaluating the contributions of social capital is to properly define the concept. Scholars agree that social capital is a broad and multifaceted element that can be approached from different perspectives. Questions to be answered before starting any research initiative are related to i) the level of the analysis, i.e. national/regional, firm or individual level; ii) the choice of suitable measures of social capital; iii) the aspects on which to evaluate their effects, i.e. macroeconomic magnitudes, innovation processes or individual preferences, to name some topics on which previous evidence is available.

According to these arguments, the workshop is organized in three parts. The first one is devoted to present new methodologies that can be applied in the field of social capital. The second part deals with the topic from a macroeconomic perspective, at both national and regional levels. Finally, the third part approaches the concept from a more microeconomic perspective, focusing the analysis more tightly at the firm and individual level.

The speakers are all recognized scholars in the field of social capital and come from a variety of prestigious institutions, both national and international.

Programme

9:15 - 9:30 Welcome a and opening session

9:30 - 11:30 Session I

“Gaussian Process Regression with Bayesian Model Averaging: Possibilities for Social Capital”
Jacob Dearmon, Oklahoma City University

“Trust Us to Repay: Social Trust, Long-Term Interest Rates and Sovereign Credit Ratings”
Christian Bjørnskov, Aarhus University
Co-author: Andreas Bergh, Lunds University and IFN

“Social capital and economic growth in Europe: Nonlinear trends and heterogeneous regional effects”
Jesús Peiró-Palomino, Universitat Jaume I and Emili Tortosa-Ausina, Universitat Jaume I and Ivie

11:30 - 12:00 Coffee break

12:00 - 14:00 Session II

“Social Capital and Regional Development – Which Types of Social Capital Influence What?”
Hans Westlund, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Jönköping International Business School

“Trust and social capital in the Internet age”
Fabio Sabatini, Sapienza University of Rome

“Territory and social networks. Direct and interactive effects of brokerage activities on innovation in clustered firms”
Xavier Molina-Morales and Luis Martínez Cháfer, Universitat Jaume I

14:00 Closing sesión

Coordinators

Emili Tortosa-Ausina, Universitat Jaume I and Ivie
Jesús Peiró-Palomino, Universitat Jaume I

Participants

Christian Bjørnskov, Aarhus University
Jacob Dearmon, Oklahoma City University
Luis Martínez Cháfer, Universitat Jaume I
Xavier Molina-Morales, Universitat Jaume I
Jesús Peiró-Palomino, Universitat Jaume I
Fabio Sabatini, Sapienza University of Rome
Emili Tortosa-Ausina, Universitat Jaume I and Ivie
Hans Westlund, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Jönköping International Business School

Venue

Universitat de València. Facultat d’Economia
Sala Ignacio Villalonga (primera planta)
Avenida de los Naranjos, s/n
46022 Valencia