Rainmakers in crisis times: Social capital and post-COVID economic recovery in Spain

"One of the most interesting aspects of any society is the establishment of social norms that encourage trust, mutual respect and cooperation (or high social capital). High levels of social capital facilitate coordinated actions that have the capacity to command scare resources and bring them towards improvement in productivity, worker well-being and social performance.
With the coronavirus lockdown in early 2020, diverse social initiatives have proliferated in the Spanish society with the aim of alleviating the social and economic consequences of the pandemic and helping the efficient functioning of regional economies. Despite such efforts, economic forecasts by international organizations today suggest that the pandemic will certainly have a strong negative effect on long-term economic growth and the pace of recovery will be painfully slow. To mitigate the negative consequences of the global crisis following COVID-19, the discussion around different policy solutions, such as capital injections in the real economy, has been initiated at both national and international level. Although policy interventions may be effective to speed up the process of economic recovery, it is very likely that pro-social cooperative attitude can further facilitate the faster recovery of local economies.
The objective of this investigation is to identify and measure the impact of social capital on the economic recovery in post-COVID Spain. This investigation will determine the critical conditions for this social capital to promote economic development of Spanish regions in (post-)crisis times."