capital, social capital, production function, productive factors, Polish provinces

Abstract

The presented study is of exploratory character, whose objective is to verify the role of social capital in relation to other productive factors such as physical and human capital, as well as unskilled labour. The Polish provinces have been chosen as research areas. The study also verifies a hypothesis that in the Polish economy the relations between social capital and the aforementioned productive factors are complementary in nature. The translogarithmic production function has been selected as an analytical method of the study. Calculations have been based on panel data covering 16 provinces and ranging from 2002 to 2014. The performed analyses do not provide sufficient evidence for confirming or rejecting the research hypothesis, however, on their basis, some of the characteristics of the studied dependencies can be observed. Relationships that combine social capital with other productive factors are not only complementary but may also be interchangeable. The nature of the relationship depends, among others, on the type of the productive factor (physical capital, human capital, unskilled labour) and the aspect of social capital (normative, behavioural or structural). The results of the calculations indicate the substitutive nature of the relationship between the normative as well as behavioural social capital and physical capital. The relationship between the structural format of social capital (inclination to associate) and physical capital bear the symptoms of complementarity. The results also signal the complementary nature of relations that combine social capital (in all its aspects) with human capital and unskilled labour. In each case, the statistically unsatisfactory results of the calculations question the power and effectiveness of the impact of social capital on the accumulation of the analysed productive factors.