Multidimensional Social Capital Index from the Perspective of Organization in China

This paper presents a framework to construct a multi-attributed social capital index by factor analysis based on data from 888 farmer households. The social capital index comprises of four dimensions: social network, social trust, social reputation and social participation. The findings illustrate that the index developed here is empirically and theoretically valid, which contributes to a further development of correct measurement of social capital in China. Using this index, this article describes the distribution of social capital by its aspects, among members in collective action (leaders, followers and free-riders). On the whole, social capital owned by leaders is the highest while those owned by free-riders are the lowest. In terms of different dimensions, the distribution of members has different characteristics.