An article examined the role of a pre-existing stock of social trust in explaining the long-run sustainability of comprehensive welfare states. It considered factors such as high levels of political confidence, strong legal institutions protecting private property rights, and low levels of bureaucratic corruption.
Source: Christian Bjornskov and Gert Tinggaard Svendsen, 'Does social trust determine the size of the welfare state? Evidence using historical identification', Public Choice, Volume 157 Issue 1-2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Sep
An article examined the association between social capital (specifically trust and social participation) and self-rated health using British Household Panel Survey data. The association appeared to be confounded by shared environmental factors not previously considered by researchers. However, the association with trust remained, adding to existing empirical evidence that generalized trust might be an independent predictor of health.
Source: Giuseppe Giordano, Juan Merlo, Henrik Ohlsson, Maria Rosvall, and Martin Lindstrom, 'Testing the association between social capital and health over time: a family-based design', BMC Public Health, Volume 13
Date: 2013-Jul
A paper examined the role of voluntary community leaders in the support and transformation of communities. These community leaders had large networks of connexions that helped to facilitate their success: but most of them had few connexions with their neighbours, and reported less community cohesion than they would have liked. This suggested separating 'bridging social capital' into 'community bridging capital' (informal connexions with neighbours and friends) and 'governance bridging capital', (connexions with individuals in formal governance structures such as local authorities, neighbourhood forums, community development trusts, local businesses, local councillors and MPs, and other agencies or community organizations).
Source: Beck Collins and David Boyd, Extending the Idea of Social Capital: Applications for community leaders, Working Paper 19, Centre for Environment and Society Research (Birmingham City University)
Links: Paper
Date: 2013-Jul
An article drew on British Household Panel Survey data to show that individuals giving up resources for others were associated with communities with fewer social vices (higher levels of social capital). Analyzing resource flows between people offered a new way of evaluating social capital and its determinant factors. Positive social capital was characterized by individuals investing resources in people who were not better off than themselves.
Source: Lorna Zischka, 'Valuing social capital by the resources people allocate to one another', Journal of International Development, Volume 25 Issue 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jun
An article examined the linkage between institutional configuration and social trust in advanced industrial democracies, highlighting the role of welfare states in co-ordinating interests among different labour market actors. Public investment in skill provision prevalent in training-supplemented welfare states led to higher accumulation of social trust, whereas passive social transfers resulted in lower social trust.
Source: Cheol-Sung Lee, 'Welfare states and social trust', Comparative Political Studies, Volume 46 Number 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Apr
A paper examined the potential of EU-SILC survey and Eurostat statistic database to describe the relationships between social capital and household poverty in Europe. It focused on two sets of variables: an active variables proxy for community and household social capital endowment, and a set of supplementary variables describing household economic well-being. A strong association was found between social capital and household economic well-being, especially as far as poverty perception was concerned.
Source: Isabella Santini and Anna De Pascale, Social Capital and Household Poverty: The case of European Union, Working Paper 109, Universita degli Studi di Roma (La Sapienza)
Links: Paper
Date: 2013-Jan
A new book examined whether social capital influenced health and health inequalities in European welfare states.
Source: Mikael Rostila, Social Capital and Health Inequality in European Welfare States, Palgrave Macmillan
Links: Summary
Date: 2013-Jan