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

55 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016

See all articles by Alexandra Avdeenko

Alexandra Avdeenko

Center for Evaluation and Development; Heidelberg University; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Michael J. Gilligan

New York University - Department of Politics

Date Written: February 1, 2014

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Social Capital, Community Development and Empowerment, Housing & Human Habitats, Social Cohesion, Governance Indicators

Suggested Citation

Avdeenko, Alexandra and Gilligan, Michael J., International Interventions to Build Social Capital: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Sudan (February 1, 2014). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 6772, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2393748

Alexandra Avdeenko (Contact Author)

Center for Evaluation and Development ( email )

O7, 3
Mannheim, 68161
Germany

Heidelberg University ( email )

Germany

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

London
United Kingdom

Michael J. Gilligan

New York University - Department of Politics ( email )

19 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10012
United States

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