Social Capital as an Elusive Factor of Socio-Economic Development

The modern economy is characterized by an intense interest in non-economic factors (e. g. cultural, institutional) in explaining economic phenomena. This is reflected in an increasing interest of economists in the concept of social capital. The article presents the role of social capital in economic development and in regional development. It shows the difficulties of measuring social capital, among others, with the problem of data aggregation or with the necessity to take into account the context. The difficulties these cause suggest that social capital still remains an elusive capital