Does Wal-Mart Reduce Social Capital?

50 Pages Posted: 22 Jun 2007 Last revised: 14 Oct 2007

See all articles by Art Carden

Art Carden

Brock School of Business, Samford University

Charles Courtemanche

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Greensboro - Department of Economics

Jeremy Meiners

Washington University in St. Louis - Department of Economics

Date Written: October 10, 2007

Abstract

Social capital has attracted increasing attention in recent years. We use county-level and individual survey data to study how Wal-Mart affects social capital. Estimates using several proxies for social capital — such as club membership, religious activity, time with friends, and other measures — do not support the thesis that "Wal-Mart destroys communities" by reducing social capital. We measure exposure to Wal-Mart two ways: Wal-Marts per 10,000 residents and Wal-Marts per 10,000 residents aggregated over years since 1979 to capture a more cumulative "Wal-Mart Effect." We find that coefficients on Wal-Mart's presence are statistically insignificant in most specifications.

Keywords: social capital, Wal-Mart, Walmart, social

JEL Classification: A10, A13, D00, Z1

Suggested Citation

Carden, Art and Courtemanche, Charles and Meiners, Jeremy, Does Wal-Mart Reduce Social Capital? (October 10, 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=995538 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.995538

Art Carden (Contact Author)

Brock School of Business, Samford University ( email )

800 Lakeshore Drive
Birmingham, AL 35229
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.artcarden.com

Charles Courtemanche

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Greensboro - Department of Economics ( email )

Greensboro, NC 27402-6165
United States

Jeremy Meiners

Washington University in St. Louis - Department of Economics ( email )

One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
323
Abstract Views
2,755
Rank
171,100
PlumX Metrics