Social capital in Europe from 1990 to 2012: trends, path-dependency and convergence

Sarracino, Francesco and Mikucka, Malgorzata (2015): Social capital in Europe from 1990 to 2012: trends, path-dependency and convergence.

Abstract

Social capital affects many social and economic outcomes; hence, it is important to monitor its changes over time. Previous literature on trends of social capital focused mainly on the case of US, devoting less attention to other regions of the world, such as Europe. This study uses WVS-EVS integrated data (1990-2012) to describe the trends of 10 proxies of social capital in 30 Western and Eastern European countries. The paper demonstrates that the convergence of social capital among European regions was limited, and it shows evidence of path dependency, especially in case of relational social capital.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: social capital; convergence; path-dependency; trends; Europe; EVS WVS.
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A12 - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology ; Social and Economic Stratification

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