Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

We can summarize our results as follows. First, the canonical model is not supported in any society studied. Second, there is considerably more behavioral variability across groups than had been found in previous cross-cultural research, and the canonical model fails in a wider variety of ways than in previous experiments. Third, group-level differences in economic organization and the degree of market integration explain a substantial portion of the behavioral variation across societies: the higher the degree of market integration and the higher the payoffs to cooperation, the greater the level of cooperation in experimental games. Fourth, individual-level economic and demographic variables do not explain behavior either within or across groups. Fifth, behavior in the experiments is generally consistent with economic patterns of everyday life in these societies.

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In search of homo economicus: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies

Crossing the great divide: Coproduction, synergy, and development

In Search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small- Scale Societies

/pdf/human-nature-and-the-social-order-3yqr9a7m4c.pdf

Human Nature and the Social Order.

Social capital has emerged as a paradigm capable of bridging across various social science disciplines. However, its adoption by social scientists from different disciplines has led to multiple and often conflicting definitions. Besides conflicting definitions, some social scientists have argued that social capital lacks the properties of capital and should be called something other than capital. This paper resolves many of the problems created by conflicting definitions by pointing out that the differences have arisen primarily because scientists have included in the definition expressions of its possible uses, where it resides, and how its service capacity can be changed. This paper argues that these applications of social capital should not be included in its definition. This paper also defends the social capital paradigm against the claim that it lacks capital-like properties by pointing out that social capital, when defined as sympathy, has many important capital-like properties including transformat...

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Is Social Capital Really Capital

(2002). Social Capital: Critical Perspectives. Journal of Economic Issues: Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 824-826.

Social Capital: Critical Perspectives

Forword by Warren J. Samuels. Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Institutional and Behavioral Economics Theory. 3. Behavioral Economics. 4. Individuals and Institutions. 5. Institutions and Organizations. 6. Sources of Human Interdependence. 7. Methods. 8. Markets. 9. Macro-Economic Institutions. 10. Technology, Growth, and Institutions. 11. Labor Institutions. 12. Political Institutions. 13. Institutional Change Analysis. 14. Recapitulation. References. Index

Conflict and Cooperation: Institutional and Behavioral Economics

Allan Schmid's book is well-illustrated by examples . . . has a superb bibliography . . . [and] is a carefully detailed and extremely convincing attack on the normative pretensions of what I am tempted to call vulgar neoclassical economics, and even on the more elegant hidden valuations of welfare economics and public choice economics. . . . It is an important contribution to the theory of normative economics and to grants economics. "Kenneth Boulding, The Journal of Economic Issues"

Property, Power, and Public Choice: An Inquiry into Law and Economics

This collection of eighteen original essays evaluates the use and misuse of common-property resources, taking as its starting point ecologist Garret Hardin's assertion in "The Tragedy of the Commons" that common property is doomed to overexploitation in any society. This book represents the first cross-cultural test of Hardin's argument and argues that, while tragedies of the commons do occur under some circumstances, local institutions have proven resilient and responsive to the problems of communal resource use.

A. Allan Schmid

Papers

Is Social Capital Really Capital

Social Capital: Critical Perspectives

Conflict and Cooperation: Institutional and Behavioral Economics

Property, Power, and Public Choice: An Inquiry into Law and Economics

The Question of the Commons: the Culture and Ecology of Communal Resources