On 10 June 2016, the OECD-hosted High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (HLEG), organised a Workshop on Measuring Trust and Social Capital in Paris, in collaboration with Sciences Po with the financial support of the European Research Council.  

Social capital and trust have emerged as key components in building better lives. This has led to a demand for a new framework of measurement based on these concepts in order to provide guidance to policymakers in the design, implementation and evaluation of policies that could foster social capital and trust.  

Measuring social capital and its determinants accurately is fraught with challenges. The information on trust in others and trust in institutions for example, is usually based on self-reported surveys instead of revealed behaviours and bilateral co-operation. Similarly, while social capital and trust appear as key determinants of well-being and social progress, we still know very little about the policy that could boost social skills and co-operation.  

With this background, this workshop had three main objectives: identify appropriate methodological frameworks to measure trust and social skills as accurately and consistently as possible across countries and different demographic groups, make policy recommendations for boosting social capital and trust, and analyse the relationship between trust and well-being.

In particular, the workshop focused on the following four topics: 

• How best to measure social capital and social skills across countries
• Alternative measures of trust in institutions and trust in others, beyond surveys
• Determinants of trust in institutions, trust in others, social skills
• Impacts of trust and social capital on well-being
  
  

View agenda and presentations

Organised in collaboration with:

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