Social Capital Formation in Australian Rural Communities: the enhancing role of the stock and station agent

Evidence from the Australian stock and station agent industry is used to examine several unresolved issues of type and measurement in the social capital literature. Two distinct types of social capital are analysed from the evidence, one being long term and innate to a community, the other variable in the shorter term through individual decisions. The two types are causally linked, innate providing propitious conditions for individual investment conditions. Social capital investment is measured through the proxy of goodwill as revealed in takeover analysis.