Link to the University of Pittsburgh
Link to the University Library SystemContact us link
AEI Banner

Social Capital and Individual Happiness in Europe. Bruges European Economic Research (BEER) Papers 25/December 2012

Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés (2012) Social Capital and Individual Happiness in Europe. Bruges European Economic Research (BEER) Papers 25/December 2012. [Policy Paper]

[img] PDF - Published Version
Download (1882Kb)

    Abstract

    This paper explores the relationship between social capital and happiness both in Europe as a whole, as well as in its four main geographical macro-regions – North, South, East and West – separately. We test the hypothesis of whether social capital, in its three-fold definition established by Coleman (1988) – trust, social interaction, and norms and sanctions – influences individual happiness across European countries and regions. The concept of social capital is further enriched by incorporating Putnam- (1993) and Olson- (1982) type variables on associational activity. Using ordinal logistic regression analysis on data for 48,583 individuals from 25 European countries, we reach three main findings. First, social capital matters for happiness across the three dimensions considered. Second, the main drivers of the effects of social capital on happiness appear to be informal social interaction and general social, as well as institutional trust. And third, there are significant differences in how social capital interacts with happiness across different areas of Europe, with the connection being at is weakest in the Nordic countries.

    Export/Citation:EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII (Chicago style) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
    Social Networking:
    Item Type: Policy Paper
    Subjects for non-EU documents: EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > political affairs > general
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Series: Series > College of Europe (Brugge) > Bruges European Economic Research Papers (BEER)
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2014 09:22
    Number of Pages: 45
    Last Modified: 19 Dec 2014 09:22
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/58618

    Actions (login required)

    View Item

    Document Downloads