Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/228875 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 352
Version Description: 
Revised version, November 2020
Publisher: 
University of Zurich, Department of Economics, Zurich
Abstract: 
We validate survey measures of social capital with a new behavioral data set that examines whether citizens report a lost wallet to its owner. Using data from more than 17,000 lost wallets across 40 countries, we find that survey measures of social capital - especially questions concerning generalized trust or generalized morality - are strongly and significantly correlated with country-level differences in wallet reporting rates. A second finding is that lost wallet reporting rates predict unique variation in the outputs of social capital, such as economic development and government effectiveness, not captured by existing measures.
Subjects: 
Social capital
trust
honesty
field experiment
surveys
JEL: 
C93
C83
Z10
O10
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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