International Interventions to Build Social Capital : Evidence from a Field Experiment in Sudan

International Interventions to Build Social Capital : Evidence from a Field Experiment in Sudan

Over the past decade the international community, especially the World Bank, has conducted programs to increase local public service delivery in developing countries by improving local governing institutions and creating social capital. This paper...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Avdeenko, Alexandra, Gilligan, Michael J.
Format: Policy Research Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:
ACCOUNTABILITY
AVERAGE PERSON
CAPACITY BUILDING
CAUSAL EFFECTS
CAUSAL IMPACT
CITIZEN
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
CITIZENS
CIVIC CULTURE
CIVIC EDUCATION
CIVIL SOCIETY
CIVIL WAR
COLLECTIVE ACTION
COMMUNITIES
COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS
COMMUNITY BUILDING
COMMUNITY COHESION
COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS
COMMUNITY DECISION MAKING
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
COMMUNITY LEADERS
COMMUNITY MEETINGS
COMMUNITY MEMBERS
COMMUNITY MONITORING
COMMUNITY NETWORKS
COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT
CORRUPTION
DEMOCRACY
DESCRIPTION
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
EQUALITY
FACILITATORS
FAMILIES
FAMILY MEMBERS
FAMILY NETWORKS
FAMILY RELATION
FEMALE
FEMALES
GENDER
GENDER EQUALITY
GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS
HOUSEHOLDS
INCLUSION
INCOME
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
INTERVENTIONS
LIFE CYCLE
LOCAL GOVERNANCE
LOCAL INSTITUTIONS
LOCAL SOCIAL CAPITAL
LOCALITIES
MARGINALIZED GROUPS
NEIGHBORHOOD
NETWORK MEMBERSHIP
PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT
PARTNERSHIP
POLITICAL ATTITUDES
POLITICAL CHANGE
POLITICAL ECONOMY
POLITICAL PROCESSES
PROCUREMENT
PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY
RECIPROCITY
RURAL AREAS
SELF-HELP
SOCIAL ACTION
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
SOCIAL CAPITAL
SOCIAL CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL CAPITAL IMPACTS
SOCIAL COHESION
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL INTERACTION
SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
SOCIAL NETWORKS
SOCIAL NORMS
SOCIAL PROTECTION
SOCIAL RELATIONS
SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP
SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
TRANSPARENCY
VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT
VILLAGE LEVEL
VILLAGES
VIOLENCE
YOUTH
YOUTH GROUPS
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/02/18924896/international-interventions-build-social-capital-evidence-field-experiment-sudan
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17311
Description
Summary:Over the past decade the international community, especially the World Bank, has conducted programs to increase local public service delivery in developing countries by improving local governing institutions and creating social capital. This paper evaluates one such program in Sudan to answer the question: Can the international community change the grassroots civic culture of developing countries to increase social capital? The paper offers three contributions. First, it uses lab-in-the-field measures to focus on the effects of the program on pro-social preferences without the confounding influence of any program- induced changes on local governing institutions. Second, it tests whether the program led to denser social networks in recipient communities. Based on these two measures, the effect of the program was a precisely estimated zero. However, in a retrospective survey, respondents from program communities characterized their behavior as being more pro-social and their communities more socially cohesive. This leads to a third contribution of the paper: it provides evidence for the hypothesis, stated by several scholars in the literature, that retrospective survey measures of social capital over biased evidence of a positive effect of these programs. Regardless of one's faith in retrospective self-reported survey measures, the results clearly point to zero impact of the program on pro-social preferences and social network density. Therefore, if the increase in self-reported behaviors is accurate, it must be because of social sanctions that enforce compliance with pro-social norms through mechanisms other than the social networks that were measured.

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