Social Capital Inequality and Subjective Wellbeing of Older Chinese

Samuelson Appau, Sefa Awaworyi Churchill, Russell Smyth and Quanda Zhang

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Using longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study provides insights on comparative wellbeing outcomes for older people who are institutionally segregated into clusters that produce uneven social capital. We present the first study that examines how institutionalized social capital inequality, measured by the social capital gap generated by hukou (household registration) status in China, affects the wellbeing of older people. Our results show that high levels of social capital inequality are associated with lower subjective wellbeing, measured by life satisfaction. This general conclusion is robust to a number of sensitivity checks including alternative ways of measuring subjective wellbeing and inequality. We also find that the negative relationship between social capital inequality and subjective wellbeing is strongest for people with a non-urban hukou living in urban areas. Our findings highlight the need for policies aimed at narrowing the social capital gap and the dismantling of institutional structures that hinder upward social capital mobility.

Keywords: social capital; social networks; trust; social capital inequality; hukou; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J14 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-10-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-cna, nep-hap, nep-soc, nep-tra and nep-ure
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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/96427/1/MPRA_paper_96427.pdf original version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/99630/1/MPRA_paper_99630.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Social Capital Inequality and Subjective Wellbeing of Older Chinese (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:96427

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