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> Paolo Vanin
Economic
Growth and Social Development
PhD Programme in Economics
University of Pavia
Supervisors: Professor Giorgio Rampa (University of Genova),
Professor Pier Luigi Sacco (IUAV University of Venice)
February 2003
Abstract
This work explores the idea that economic growth and social development
may, but need not work in the same direction. On one side, economic
growth makes more and more resources available, that can be used
both for individual and for social purposes; on the other side,
it may be based on a substitution of private for social activities,
that leads to social impoverishment. Conversely, a rich social environment
may be good both for individual well-being and for long run growth,
but it may also subtract resources to private growth-enhancing activities.
Where material needs have been satisfied to a substantial degree,
as it is the case in advanced economies, well-being depends to an
increasing extent upon social factors: it becomes a matter of building
up a satisfactory individual and social identity. Since other social
sciences have long debated the questions related to identity construction,
Chapter 2 briefly reviews some of the main issues emerged in such
debate and relates them to social development.
Within contemporary economics, two useful concepts to tackle similar
questions are those of social capital and of relational goods. The
notion of social capital refers to a form of capital that is encompassed
in the social structure of a group, rather than in physical objects
or in single human beings, like physical and human capital. Chapter
3 reviews the most relevant economic literature on social capital.
The notion of relational goods refers, roughly speaking, to those
goods that satisfy relational needs and are obtained through participation
to some social activity. Chapter 4 discusses this notion, with particular
emphasis on the substitutability between some private goods and
relational goods, and on the contribution of social capital to the
enjoyment of the latter ones. Moreover, it discusses how social
participation may affect both enjoyment of relational goods and
social capital accumulation, and thus contribute to social development.
Since most relational goods do not enter in the GNP, to the extent
that economic growth is based on a substitution of private for relational
goods, it may lead to situations of social poverty, whose impact
on well-being is not reflected in growth accounting.
The models presented in Chapters 5, 6 and 7 formally investigate
this possible conflict between economic growth and social development,
using both the tools of neoclassical growth models and of evolutionary
game theory. In particular, they allow to discuss the conditions
under which a growing economy may fall into ‘social poverty
traps’.
Information on the author
Dr Paolo Vanin is Assistant Professor at the University of Padua,
Department of Economics.
Contact details
Dr Paolo Vanin
University of Padua
Faculty of Statistics
Department of Economics
Via del Santo, 33 - 35123,
Padova (PD), Italy
Phone.: +39 - 049 827 4060
Fax : +39 - 049 827 4211
e-mail: paolo.vanin@unipd.it
Download the thesis
Economic Growth and Social Development
(Pdf file, 0.8 Mb)
Additional information
This thesis is listed also in sections Economics,
English and in the Chronological
archive.
Related works
• 2006, Social Capital Accumulation and the Evolution of
Social Participation (jointly with A. Antoci e P. L. Sacco), Journal
of Socio-Economics, forthcoming.
• 2006, The Economics of Human Relationships (jointly with
P. L. Sacco and S. Zamagni), in L.-A. Gerard-Varet, S-C. Kolm e
J. Mercier Ythier (eds.), Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity
and Altruism, Amsterdam, Elsevier North Holland, forthcoming (preliminary
version published on line in Social Science Research Network Electronic
Library).
• 2005, On the Possible Conflict Between Economic Growth
and Social Development (jointly with A. Antoci and P. L. Sacco),
in B. Gui and R. Sugden (eds.), Economics and Social Interaction:
Accounting for Interpersonal Relations, Cambridge University Press.
• 2005, Relational Goods, Private Consumption and Social
Poverty Traps in an Evolutionary Game (jointly with A. Antoci and
P. Russu), University of Bologna-Forlì, CLEONP-AICCON Working
Paper N. 25/2005
• 2002, Il rischio dell’impoverimento sociale nelle
economie avanzate (jointly with A. Antoci and P. L. Sacco), in P.
L. Sacco, S. Zamagni (eds.), Complessità relazionale e comportamento
economico. Materiali per un nuovo paradigma di razionalità,
Bologna, Il Mulino.
• 2000, Network interaction with material and relational
goods: an exploratory simulation (jointly with P. L. Sacco), Annals
of Public and Cooperative Economics, 71:2, 229-259.
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