We investigate the role of community-level social capital in individuals’ investment decisions in equity crowdfunding. We exploit a hand-collected dataset of individual investments pledged to successful campaigns in Italy between 2014 and 2018. Individuals born in provinces with high social capital invest more substantially in riskier campaigns. Contrary to inborn social capital, social capital in the province where investors live has no impact. This evidence survives several robustness checks and highlights the crucial role of an individual’s cultural traits in fostering investment in equity crowdfunding.

Access the paper here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-022-00724-4