ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 proposes a concept—social productivity—to complement the widely used concepts of social capital and economic productivity. All three concepts are concerned with structured groups, which include organizations, institutions, and societies, but each concept focuses on a different aspect of such groups. Social productivity deals with the social outputs of groups; social capital emphasizes the social resources of groups; and economic productivity deals with the economically relevant goods and services of groups. Three social outputs of organized groups are identified: (1) reputation, (2) symbols, and (3) trust and perceptions of fairness. These social outputs are critical to a group not only because they affect the degree of commitment to the group by its participants but also because they affect the responses to the group by nonmembers. From the perspective of social productivity, government adopts law in order to preserve the reputation of important groups, provide symbols, and promote trust. The chapter illustrates the concept of social productivity by examining federal law on investment companies and investment advisers.
