Economic Growth, Technological Progress and Social Capital: The Inverted U Hypothesis

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may AbstractWe set up a theoretical framework to analyze the possible role of economic growth and technological progress in the erosion of social capital. Under certain parameters, the relationship between technological progress and social capital can take the shape of an inverted U curve. We show the circumstances allowing the economy to follow trajectories where the stock of social capital grows endogenously and unboundedly.

Online networks, social interaction and segregation: an evolutionary approach

“…Individuals, in fact, might want to cope with the deterioration in the social environment surrounding them and/or the increasing busyness related to their material aspirations by choosing to limit their social relationships to a minimum. This result is related to previous research that studied how growth may cause negative externalities on social relationships and social cohesion (Putnam, 2000;Bartolini and Bonatti, 2008;Antoci et al, 2007Antoci et al, , 2012bAntoci et al, , 2013Bartolini et al, 2013;Bartolini and Sarracino, 2015a). These studies claimed that the rise in material aspirations and the need to work more might tighten time constraints, causing deterioration in the social environment and prompting a gradual withdrawal from face-to-face interactions Social withdrawal is self-feeding, in that the higher the share of the population renouncing to social participation, the poorer the social environment becomes, for example, in terms of social engagement opportunities.…”

Online Social Networks and Trust

“…In the last decade, Putnam's arguments have found support in a number of studies investigating the effect exerted on various dimensions of social connectedness by the rise in working time (Bartolini and Bilancini, 2011), labour mobility (Routledge and von Ambsberg, 2003), urban sprawl and commuting (Besser et al, 2008;Wellman et al, 2001), and the social poverty of the surrounding environment, which can prompt individuals to pursue social isolation (Bartolini and Bonatti, 2003;Antoci, Sacco and Vanin, 2007;Antoci, Sabatini and Sodini, 2012b;2013a;2013b). …”

“…In the years that preceded the social networking revolution, indicators of social capital, including face-to-face interaction and social trust, had declined in many OECD countries (Bartolini et al, 2013;Costa and Kahn, 2003;Putnam, 2002;Sarracino, 2010). More recently, the success of social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook and Twitter has resulted in a steep rise in Internet-mediated interaction (Antoci et al 2013a;2013b;Brenner and Smith, 2013). As opposed to simply reading or viewing content, 65 per cent of Facebook users frequently or sometimes share, post or comment on Facebook.…”

Bowling alone but tweeting together: the evolution of human interaction in the social networking era

“…This paper represents the last step in a research programme aimed at analyzing the evolution of social participation and the accumulation of social capital in relation to economic growth and technological progress. In previous works, we highlighted how the reduction in the time p available for social participation can trigger self-feeding processes leading to the progressive erosion of the stock of social capital (Antoci et al 2011b;2011c). In these papers, we analyzed a scenario in which the time for social participation is an endogenous variable (i.e.…”