From cultural capital to growth

Capital in the traditional, narrow sense of Karl Marx and Milton Friedman – physical capital, a k a real capital – is clearly a key pillar of economic growth. Even so, there are other kinds of capital that also matter for growth, including – obviously – financial capital. Further, it has long been well understood that human capital, built up through health care, education, and on-the-job training, is also good for growth as China´s barefoot doctors and many others know well from experience. More recently, we have begun also to understand the importance of social capital, which is why researchers now keep gathering internationally comparable data on democracy, equality, justice, transparency, and trust and look for their relationship to economic and social development across countries. Again, the data convey a rather strong impression that also social capital, including democracy, equality, and transparency, is good for growth. And then there is the separate category of cultural capital.