Social Capital and Rotating Labor Associations in Rural China

Abstract

This paper studies social capital and households' participation in Rotating Labor Associations (ROLAs) in rural China. I employ both self-reported trust and the presence of village temple prior to 1949 as proxies for social capital. I find that households in communities with higher levels of social capital are more likely to participate in ROLAs, using household data collected from the Gansu province in China.