Abstract: By making use of China’s data, this paper conducts a theoretical analysis and empirical study of the relationship between social capital, government performance and economic growth on the basis of the traditional interpretation framework. On the one hand, the improvement of social capital can promote economic growth significantly. The development of social capital is beneficial to the inter-personal cooperation, so that the optimal social results can be achieved through the collective action. On the other hand, government performance may be the channel, through which social capital can play a role in affecting economic growth. Higher level of social capital can stimulate government officials to have strong sense of responsibility and provide high quality policy supply, which can promote economic growth significantly while improving government performance. The policy implication of this paper is to provide a new perspective for the research of China’s economic development, i.e., setting up a perspective of social structure and social characteristics, in addition to the economic perspective.

Key words: social capital; government performance; economic growth