CIMF Workshop

Social Capital, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Economic Development

Organized by:
EconomEtica (Inter-University Centre for Economic Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility)
The Department of Economics of the University of Trento - LaSER (Laboratory for Social Responsibility, Ethics and Rational Choice)

Conference Center Panorama, Trento, Italy

The Workshop
Trento, from 24th to 25th of July 2007
Application deadline: 18 June 2007

The Summer School
Trento, from 26th to 29th of July 2007
Application deadline: 10 June 2007
Admission will be notified before 25 June 2007

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Program of the workshop

24th of July 

9-13 Session 1
Social capital and trust relationships in economics:
its  theoretical foundation and explanatory power with respect to social  institutions and the efficiency of organisation and local economic systems

Keynote speakers

• Bruno Frey (Zurich University)
Social capital and trust relationships in economics: its theoretical foundation and explanatory power with respect to social institutions and the efficiency of organizations and local economic systems

• Masaiko Aoki (Stanford University)
The role of Social norms in institutional change

Contributed papers

• Leonardo Becchetti (University of Tor Vergata – Roma and EconomEtica), Giacomo Degli Antoni (EconomEtica), Marco Faillo (University  of  Trento) and Luigi Mittone (University  of  Trento)
Trust, relational goods and social preferences. Do voluntary workers make a  difference?

• Pelligra Vittorio (University of Cagliari)
Banking with sentiments a model of fiduciary interactions in micro-credit programs

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14.30 - 18.30 Session 2
Measuring social capital: methodological issues

Keynote speakers

• Steven Durlauf (University of Wisconsin – Madison)
Identification problems in uncovering social capital effects

• Nan Lin (Duke University)                            
Social Capital: Theory, Measurement and Research

Contributed papers

• Bonatti Luigi (University of Trento) and Stefano Bartolini (University of Siena)
Endogenous growth, decline in  social capital and  expansion of
market activities

• Beraldo Sergio (University of Napoli - Federico II)
How can a Smithian Society Be Established? Open versus Closed Networks and the Long Run Evolution of Trade

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25th of July 

9-13 Session 3
Social capital, CSR and economic development 

Keynote speakers

• Herbert Gintis (Santa Fe Institute)
Corporate Honesty and Business Education: A Behavioral Model

Contributed papers

• Lorenzo Sacconi (University of Trento and EconomEtica) and Giacomo Degli Antoni (EconomEtica)
Theoretical and empirical analysis of the relationship between social capital and corporate social responsibility

• Carlo Borzaga (University  of  Trento) and Ermanno Tortia (University  of  Trento)
Social Enterprises and Welfare Systems

• Luigino Bruni (University of Milano Bicocca and EconomEtica) and Robert Sugden (University of East Anglia)
Fraternity: why the market need not be a morally free zone

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14.30 - 18.30 Session 4
Empirical Studies on Social Capital and Economic development

Keynote speakers

• Martin Paldam (University of Aarhus)
The structure of social capital in 21 countries
Analysing the answers of 25000 recipients

• Robert Leonardi (London School of Economics) and Raffaella Nanetti (University of Illinois at Chicago)
The local path to sustainable development. Social capital in Naples

Contributed papers

• Antonio Chiesi (University of Milano and EconomEtica)
Measuring Social Capital and its Effectiveness

• Beatrice d’Hombres (European Commision), Rocco Lorenzo (University of Padova), Marc Suhrcke (World Healt Organization) and Martin McKee (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)
Does social capital determine health? Evidence from eight transition countries

• Fabio Sabatini (University of Siena)
Social capital and economic development in Italy

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The Summer School

July 26-29, 2007
Conference Center Panorama, Trento, Italy

Organizers

Prof. Lorenzo Sacconi (EconomEtica - University of Trento)
Dr. Giacomo Degli Antoni (EconomEtica)
Dr. Marco Faillo (University of Trento)

Aims of the school

What kinds of relationships do connect the concepts of social capital, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable economic development? Is the concept of social capital useful in order to investigate the interplay between social norms, corporate governance and the structure of local institutions and their effects on local sustainable development and firm efficiency? Over the last few years, more and more attention has been devoted to the investigation on the effects that social capital has on economic variables. In this perspective, several studies have analysed the relationships between: social capital and economic growth (e.g. Knack and Keefer 1997; and Zak and Knack 2001); social capital and government performance (e.g. Putnam 1993; and La Porta et al. 1999); social capital and human capital (e.g. Loury 1977; Coleman 1988; and Helliwell and Putnam 1999); and social capital and financial development (e.g. Guiso, Sapienza and Zingales 2004). In spite of the increasing literature on social capital, some topics seems to be under-investigated and many methodological issues are still open with regard to the use of this concept both at a theoretical and at an empirical level. The relationships between social capital, corporate social responsibility and sustainable economic development do not seem to have been analyzed in a complete way. In this respect, one specific direction through which social capital should affect economic development is by affecting, internally and from the exterior, corporate strategies (oriented to CSR) and economic performance. In turn, in a biunivocal relationship between corporate social responsibility and social capital, the CSR attitude of local firms may further contribute to the development of social capital both with regard to the stakeholders in the strict sense (those who have made specific investment in the firm) and with regard to the social community.
From a methodological point of view, looking at the social capital literature, several points in particular related to the empirical analysis of this notion still seem to be problematic.
This summer school will provide an in-depth discussion of the relationship between social capital, corporate social responsibility and sustainable economic development. Particular attention will be devoted to the methodological issues related to the concept of social capital and to the measurement techniques for social capital. A group of leading scholars will present their research and will provide a thorough introduction to the current literature. Plenty of time will be devoted to discussion with students to foster their programs of research.

Topics covered

The first day will be focused on the analysis of complementarity amongst social norms, corporate governance structures and public institutions, and of their effect on the comparative efficiency of economic systems.
The second day will be focused on the network theory of social capital and its measurement.
The third day will be devoted to exploring a number of difficulties with the empirical analysis of social capital in particular focusing on the identification problems in uncovering social capital effects.
The fourth day will be devoted to the analysis of the empirical results on the relationship between social capital and economic development.

Topics covered are:

• The emergence and breakdown of social norms and conventions;
• Complementarity amongst social norms, corporate governance structures and public institutions, and their effect the comparative efficiency of economic systems;
• The definitions, the roots and the effects of social capital;
• Methodological difficulties related to the empirical analysis of social capital;
• Measurement techniques for social capital: the network analysis tool;
• Experimental methods to measure social capital;
• Social capital and economic growth: cross-country evidence.

Lectures will be held by:

Prof. Masahiko Aoki, Stanford University
Prof. Steven Durlauf, University of Wisconsin
Prof. Herbert Gintis, Santa Fe Institute and Central European University
Prof. Nan Lin, Duke University
Prof. Martin Paldam, Aarhus University

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Workshop and Summer school official web site

Please, check the official web site for updates and further details.

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