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

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...

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Main Authors:	Avdeenko, Alexandra, Gilligan, Michael J.
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:	ACCOUNTABILITY AVERAGE PERSON CAPACITY BUILDING CAUSAL EFFECTS CAUSAL IMPACT CITIZEN CITIZEN PARTICIPATION CITIZENS CIVIC CULTURE CIVIC EDUCATION CIVIL SOCIETY CIVIL WAR COLLECTIVE ACTION COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS COMMUNITY BUILDING COMMUNITY COHESION COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS COMMUNITY DECISION MAKING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY LEADERS COMMUNITY MEETINGS COMMUNITY MEMBERS COMMUNITY MONITORING COMMUNITY NETWORKS COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT CORRUPTION DEMOCRACY DESCRIPTION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT EQUALITY FACILITATORS FAMILIES FAMILY MEMBERS FAMILY NETWORKS FAMILY RELATION FEMALE FEMALES GENDER GENDER EQUALITY GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS HOUSEHOLDS INCLUSION INCOME INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS LIFE CYCLE LOCAL GOVERNANCE LOCAL INSTITUTIONS LOCAL SOCIAL CAPITAL LOCALITIES MARGINALIZED GROUPS NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORK MEMBERSHIP PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP POLITICAL ATTITUDES POLITICAL CHANGE POLITICAL ECONOMY POLITICAL PROCESSES PROCUREMENT PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY RECIPROCITY RURAL AREAS SELF-HELP SOCIAL ACTION SOCIAL ACTIVITIES SOCIAL BEHAVIOR SOCIAL CAPITAL SOCIAL CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL CAPITAL IMPACTS SOCIAL COHESION SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL INTERACTION SOCIAL INTERACTIONS SOCIAL NETWORKS SOCIAL NORMS SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL RELATIONS SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY TRANSPARENCY VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT VILLAGE LEVEL VILLAGES VIOLENCE YOUTH YOUTH GROUPS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/02/18924896/international-interventions-build-social-capital-evidence-field-experiment-sudan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17311

id	okr-10986-17311
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-173112021-04-23T14:03:37Z International Interventions to Build Social Capital : Evidence from a Field Experiment in Sudan Avdeenko, Alexandra Gilligan, Michael J. ACCOUNTABILITY AVERAGE PERSON CAPACITY BUILDING CAUSAL EFFECTS CAUSAL IMPACT CITIZEN CITIZEN PARTICIPATION CITIZENS CIVIC CULTURE CIVIC EDUCATION CIVIL SOCIETY CIVIL WAR COLLECTIVE ACTION COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS COMMUNITY BUILDING COMMUNITY COHESION COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS COMMUNITY DECISION MAKING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY LEADERS COMMUNITY MEETINGS COMMUNITY MEMBERS COMMUNITY MONITORING COMMUNITY NETWORKS COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT CORRUPTION DEMOCRACY DESCRIPTION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT EQUALITY FACILITATORS FAMILIES FAMILY MEMBERS FAMILY NETWORKS FAMILY RELATION FEMALE FEMALES GENDER GENDER EQUALITY GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS HOUSEHOLDS INCLUSION INCOME INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS LIFE CYCLE LOCAL GOVERNANCE LOCAL INSTITUTIONS LOCAL SOCIAL CAPITAL LOCALITIES MARGINALIZED GROUPS NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORK MEMBERSHIP PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP POLITICAL ATTITUDES POLITICAL CHANGE POLITICAL ECONOMY POLITICAL PROCESSES PROCUREMENT PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY RECIPROCITY RURAL AREAS SELF-HELP SOCIAL ACTION SOCIAL ACTIVITIES SOCIAL BEHAVIOR SOCIAL CAPITAL SOCIAL CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL CAPITAL IMPACTS SOCIAL COHESION SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL INTERACTION SOCIAL INTERACTIONS SOCIAL NETWORKS SOCIAL NORMS SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL RELATIONS SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY TRANSPARENCY VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT VILLAGE LEVEL VILLAGES VIOLENCE YOUTH YOUTH GROUPS 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. 2014-03-18T20:24:23Z 2014-03-18T20:24:23Z 2014-02 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/02/18924896/international-interventions-build-social-capital-evidence-field-experiment-sudan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17311 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6772 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Africa Sudan
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	ACCOUNTABILITY AVERAGE PERSON CAPACITY BUILDING CAUSAL EFFECTS CAUSAL IMPACT CITIZEN CITIZEN PARTICIPATION CITIZENS CIVIC CULTURE CIVIC EDUCATION CIVIL SOCIETY CIVIL WAR COLLECTIVE ACTION COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS COMMUNITY BUILDING COMMUNITY COHESION COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS COMMUNITY DECISION MAKING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY LEADERS COMMUNITY MEETINGS COMMUNITY MEMBERS COMMUNITY MONITORING COMMUNITY NETWORKS COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT CORRUPTION DEMOCRACY DESCRIPTION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT EQUALITY FACILITATORS FAMILIES FAMILY MEMBERS FAMILY NETWORKS FAMILY RELATION FEMALE FEMALES GENDER GENDER EQUALITY GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS HOUSEHOLDS INCLUSION INCOME INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS LIFE CYCLE LOCAL GOVERNANCE LOCAL INSTITUTIONS LOCAL SOCIAL CAPITAL LOCALITIES MARGINALIZED GROUPS NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORK MEMBERSHIP PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP POLITICAL ATTITUDES POLITICAL CHANGE POLITICAL ECONOMY POLITICAL PROCESSES PROCUREMENT PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY RECIPROCITY RURAL AREAS SELF-HELP SOCIAL ACTION SOCIAL ACTIVITIES SOCIAL BEHAVIOR SOCIAL CAPITAL SOCIAL CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL CAPITAL IMPACTS SOCIAL COHESION SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL INTERACTION SOCIAL INTERACTIONS SOCIAL NETWORKS SOCIAL NORMS SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL RELATIONS SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY TRANSPARENCY VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT VILLAGE LEVEL VILLAGES VIOLENCE YOUTH YOUTH GROUPS
spellingShingle	ACCOUNTABILITY AVERAGE PERSON CAPACITY BUILDING CAUSAL EFFECTS CAUSAL IMPACT CITIZEN CITIZEN PARTICIPATION CITIZENS CIVIC CULTURE CIVIC EDUCATION CIVIL SOCIETY CIVIL WAR COLLECTIVE ACTION COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS COMMUNITY BUILDING COMMUNITY COHESION COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS COMMUNITY DECISION MAKING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY LEADERS COMMUNITY MEETINGS COMMUNITY MEMBERS COMMUNITY MONITORING COMMUNITY NETWORKS COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT CORRUPTION DEMOCRACY DESCRIPTION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT EQUALITY FACILITATORS FAMILIES FAMILY MEMBERS FAMILY NETWORKS FAMILY RELATION FEMALE FEMALES GENDER GENDER EQUALITY GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS HOUSEHOLDS INCLUSION INCOME INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS LIFE CYCLE LOCAL GOVERNANCE LOCAL INSTITUTIONS LOCAL SOCIAL CAPITAL LOCALITIES MARGINALIZED GROUPS NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORK MEMBERSHIP PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP POLITICAL ATTITUDES POLITICAL CHANGE POLITICAL ECONOMY POLITICAL PROCESSES PROCUREMENT PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY RECIPROCITY RURAL AREAS SELF-HELP SOCIAL ACTION SOCIAL ACTIVITIES SOCIAL BEHAVIOR SOCIAL CAPITAL SOCIAL CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL CAPITAL IMPACTS SOCIAL COHESION SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL INTERACTION SOCIAL INTERACTIONS SOCIAL NETWORKS SOCIAL NORMS SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL RELATIONS SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY TRANSPARENCY VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT VILLAGE LEVEL VILLAGES VIOLENCE YOUTH YOUTH GROUPS Avdeenko, Alexandra Gilligan, Michael J. International Interventions to Build Social Capital : Evidence from a Field Experiment in Sudan
geographic_facet	Africa Sudan
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6772
description	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.
format	Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author	Avdeenko, Alexandra Gilligan, Michael J.
author_facet	Avdeenko, Alexandra Gilligan, Michael J.
author_sort	Avdeenko, Alexandra
title	International Interventions to Build Social Capital : Evidence from a Field Experiment in Sudan
title_short	International Interventions to Build Social Capital : Evidence from a Field Experiment in Sudan
title_full	International Interventions to Build Social Capital : Evidence from a Field Experiment in Sudan
title_fullStr	International Interventions to Build Social Capital : Evidence from a Field Experiment in Sudan
title_full_unstemmed	International Interventions to Build Social Capital : Evidence from a Field Experiment in Sudan
title_sort	international interventions to build social capital : evidence from a field experiment in sudan
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2014
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/02/18924896/international-interventions-build-social-capital-evidence-field-experiment-sudan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17311
_version_	1764436855309205504

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

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