Social Capital and Political Accountability∗

Preliminary draft In this paper, we empirically investigate a channel through which social capital may improve economic wellbeing and the functioning of institutions: political account-ability. The main idea is that voters who share norms of generalized trust are likely to demand higher standards of behavior on their elected representatives, are more willing to bear the cost of acquiring information, and are more likely to base their vote on criteria of social welfare rather than (narrow) personal interest. We take this conjecture to the data using information on the Italian members of Parliament in the postwar period (1948–2001). The empirical evidence shows that social capital—as measured by blood donation—is negatively associated with political misbehavior, such as receiving a request of criminal prosecution or shirking in parliamentary ac-tivity. Accordingly, the electoral punishment of political misbehavior by voters is considerably larger in electoral districts characterized by high social capital