In this paper we test the celebrated `Strength of weak ties' theory of Granovetter (1973). We test two hypotheses on the network structure in a data set of collaborating economists. While we find support for the hypothesis of transitivity of strong ties, we reject the hypothesis that weak ties...

How important is social capital for a market economy and what effect does government intervention have on social capital? By looking at how the market is embedded within an institutional framework that depends on certain norms, government intervention can distort certain signals and destroy the...

Which kind of social capital fosters the diffusion of development-oriented trust? This paper carries out an empirical investigation into the causal relationships connecting four types of social capital (i.e. bonding, bridging, linking, and corporate), and different forms of trust...

Which kind of social capital fosters the diffusion of development-oriented trust? This paper carries out an empirical investigation into the causal relationships connecting four types of social capital (i.e. bonding, bridging, linking, and corporate), and different forms of trust...

This article investigates the social network dimension in processes of cross-national transfer. The empirical focus is the conscious attempt to appropriate, in France after 1945, the American model of the large firm. Structural conditions-internal crisis and geopolitical dependence-created the...

We examine the informal exchange of favors in societies such that any two individuals interact too infrequently to sustain exchange, but such that the social pressure of the possible loss of multiple relationships can sustain exchange. Patterns of exchange that are locally enforceable and...