Why are Ugandan Farms Small? Role of Trust and Social Capital

Talk by Giovanni Alberto Tabacco (Statale University of Milan) as part of the Research Seminar Series of the IOS Economics Department.

In this article, we develop a conceptual framework to examine the effects of trust and social capital on farm size in Uganda. The conceptual framework suggests that a lack of trust and social capital can contribute to maintaining the small size of farms in Uganda; consequently, it provides an answer to why Ugandan farms, like those in many other Sub-Saharan African countries, very often do not implement strategic investments to grow their size for the means of making large economies of scale. To further assess the impact of trust and social capital on farm size and to explain why trust and social capital can be low in Uganda, the main sources of trust generation and social capital accumulation are investigated: religion and political activity. Through a throughout outline of historical evolution and development of religion in Uganda, it is found that it has been a fairly good source of trust generation and social capital accumulation; whereas, an investigation of mechanisms through which political activity affects trust formation, as well as a thorough outline of Ugandan political history since independence, reveals evidence that government activity has severely suppressed trust and social capital generation.