Creativity meets social capital : theory and field evidence

Abstract

We model creativity as capital built by costly creative effort that complements social capital and is often accompanied by routines that economize attention and time. Higher effort costs are associated with lower entry into the creative state, while openness and trust are associated with higher productivity of creative effort mainly through creative capital. Using field survey data from an Italian music festival and a recursive bivariate probit, we find that costs are negatively associated with creativity, whereas creativity is strongly associated with festival collaboration, volunteering, and territorial cooperation. Consistent with a routinization perspective, the creativity–engagement link is stronger when participation occurs in more socially “structured” environments. To encourage creativity, policies should reduce cognitive frictions and improve the productivity of creative effort.