In recent decades, renewable energy cooperatives have substantially increased their share of renewable energy production. The operation of these cooperatives requires collective action, potentially supported by local social capital. We investigate whether municipal-level bonding and bridging social capital explain the differences in the prevalence of renewable energy cooperatives across Dutch municipalities. We measure social capital directly from social network structures within and between municipalities, thus overcoming limitations of using proxies. Our empirical results reveal that bonding rather than bridging social capital supports renewable energy cooperatives, shedding new light on the role these types of social capital play in regional development.

中文翻译：

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社会资本是否培育可再生能源合作社？


近几十年来，可再生能源合作社大幅增加了可再生能源生产的份额。这些合作社的运作需要集体行动，并可能得到当地社会资本的支持。我们调查了市政层面的联系和桥接社会资本是否解释了荷兰各城市可再生能源合作社普及程度的差异。我们直接从城市内部和城市之间的社会网络结构来衡量社会资本，从而克服了使用代理的局限性。我们的实证结果表明，对可再生能源合作社的支持是纽带而非桥梁社会资本，这为了解这些类型的社会资本在区域发展中发挥的作用提供了新的线索。