Early investments in state capacity promote persistently higher levels of social capital.

ABSTRACT: Social capital has been shown to positively influence a multitude of economic, political, and social outcomes. Yet the factors that affect long-run social capital formation remain poorly understood. Recent evidence suggests that early state formation, especially investments in state capacity, are positively associated with higher levels of contemporary social capital and other prosocial attitudes. The channels by which early state capacity leads to greater social capital over time are even less understood. We contribute to both questions using the spatial and temporal expansion of the US postal network during the 19th century. We first show that county-level variation in post office density is highly correlated with a bevy of historical and contemporary indicators of social capital (e.g.,

SUBMITTER: Jensen JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7245116 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature