Social Capital, Trust, and Well-being in the Evaluation of Wealth

This paper combines theory with data
from different domains to provide an empirical analysis of
the scale and variability of social capital as wealth. The
analysis is used to argue, given what has been learned from
the literature on social capital, that the welfare returns
to investing in trust could be substantial. Using data from
132 nations covered by the Gallup World Poll, the paper
presents a range of estimates of the wealth-equivalent
values of social trust. Such values are usually not included
in national or global accounts of income and wealth. In the
light of the estimated importance of social trust as a
component of wealth and well-being, the paper concludes with
some policy options for how social trust might be better
built and sustained.