Social economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Social economics - Essay Example Improving the social being is one of the prime concerns of the governments and devotes a lot of interest to achieve economic prosperity. But economic prosperity may not bring improved social well being for all as well being is not directly related to income. The aspects of social capital can act to reduce transaction costs and also encourage behavior and trust. The different sources within the community can be thought of as the origination of social capital. Social capital can operate and emerge in families and educational institutions and also in business and local community. Social capital can have both positive and negative impacts on the society. On the one hand it creates social division and on the other leads to social and economic well being at least for some sections of the society. There are mainly five mechanisms by which social capital can affect the outcomes. A distinction can be made between the formal and informal forms of social capital. Formal social capital refers to patterns of behavior, exchange norms, networks which are formally defined. The networks operating outside this formal system refer to informal social capital. The usefulness of this distinction lies in illustrating the problems arising in operations of social capital. The first kind of social capital can be found in the extent of civil society while the second form can be difficult to find as it requires household surveys. At the national level poverty refers to a country’s lack of resources necessary towards education, health and infrastructure. This may give rise to political unrest. In the developed countries poverty is one of the social problems. Poverty alleviation has been one of the guiding principles for most of the governments. The role of economic growth and development in creating employment avenues has clearly been recognized. Some specific sectors have been chosen by most administrations and growth oriented approach has been undertaken.