Social capital and economic growth in the regions of Europe

Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, Jonathan Muringani and Rune Fitjar
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Andrés Rodríguez-Pose

No 15871, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Social capital is an important factor explaining differences in economic growth among regions. However, the key distinction between bonding social capital, which can lead to lock-in and myopia, and bridging social capital, which promotes knowledge flows across diverse groups, has been overlooked in growth research. In this paper, we address this shortcoming by examining how bonding and bridging social capital affect regional economic growth, using data for 190 regions in 21 EU countries, covering eight waves of the European Social Survey between 2002 and 2016. The findings confirm that bridging social capital is linked to higher levels of regional economic growth. Bonding social capital is highly correlated with bridging social capital and associated with lower growth when this is controlled for. We do not find significantly different effects of bonding social capital in regions with more or less bridging social capital, or vice versa. We examine the interaction between social and human capital, finding that bridging social capital is fundamental for stimulating economic growth, especially in low-skilled regions. Human capital also moderates the relationship between bonding social capital and growth, reducing the negative externalities imposed by excessive bonding.

Keywords: Social capital; Bonding; Bridging; Regions; Economic growth; Eu (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O17 O43 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa, nep-eur, nep-geo, nep-soc, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP15871 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: Social capital and economic growth in the regions of Europe (2021)
Working Paper: Social capital and economic growth in the regions of Europe (2021)
Working Paper: Social capital and economic growth in the regions of Europe (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:15871

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP15871

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().