Creativity Meets Social Capital: Theory and Field Evidence

Abstract

We model creativity as capital built by costly cognitive effort that complements social capital and is often accompanied by routines that economize attention and time. Higher effort costs deter entry into the creative state, while openness and trust increase the productivity of cognitive effort mainly through creative capital. Using lab-in-the-field data from an Italian music festival and a recursive bivariate probit, we find that costs depress creativity, whereas creativity strongly boosts festival collaboration, volunteering, and territorial cooperation. Consistent with a routinization perspective, the creativity-engagement link is stronger when participation occurs in more socially "structured" environments. To encourage creativity, policies should reduce cognitive frictions and improve the productivity of cognitive effort.

Keywords: Creativity, Cognitive Effort, Social Capital, Routinization, Field Experiment

JEL Classification: C93, C35, D01, Z13, O31