Social capital and regional development: the case of southeast Tocantins

Abstract

What are the variables as the economic development of localities? The traditional economic view emphasizes the role of natural conditions, human capacity, the public and private investments to the process of economic growth and development, but recently the literature on social capital has been emphasizing that economic variables are not sufficient to explain the process, as the social and civic participation are also relevant. Thus, this paper has as main objective to present and discuss the relationship between social capital and local economic development, taking as a case study in southeastern state of Tocantins. The method employed to collect secondary data on the variables as the development and interviews to assess the social capital of the municipalities surveyed. They were collected in a descriptive way and also created an econometric model to assess the specific importance of social capital on the levels of development in the region. We conclude that social capital is relevant to improving development indicators, but variables related to the advancement of public policies to improve life expectancy, education and direct combat poverty are even more important.