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Abstract
Although social capital is a potentially important asset for poverty reduction in
developing economies, there has been little analysis of factors affecting its formation
in developing countries such as Uganda. This paper analyzes what influences
households to join local organizations and the intensity of social networks in central
Uganda. Social networks were disaggregated by major activity to gain insight into
household access, and the interaction between local organizations and social networks
was examined. Probit and ordered probit models were estimated to identify what led
households to participate in organizations and the intensity of participation. A
negative binomial model was applied to analyze the household intensity of social
networks. The findings revealed that household characteristics and aspects of village
homogeneity influence various dimensions of social capital and that there was
positive interaction between the social capital generated by local organizations and
that derived from social networks. The study has important policy implications for
agricultural extension programs that use a group based approach.