Community-level social capital and agricultural cooperatives: Evidence from Hebei, China

This paper explores the relationships between five aspects of community-level social capital and the formation and performance of agricultural cooperatives, based on an investigation of 50 rural villages in Hebei, China. Results show that trust and informal sociability relate positively to either cooperative formation or performance, whereas local network is negatively related to both formation and performance. It is therefore recommended that policy makers leverage publicity channels and financial tools to encourage and stimulate trust, enhance the effectiveness of intervillage communication, and work out a collaborative mechanism between local networks and agricultural cooperatives. [EconLit Citations: Q13, P32]