Workers’ social capital and employment outcomes: the case of MENA countries

Jieun Lee and Vladimir Hlasny

Chapter 15 in Research Handbook on Poverty and Inequality, 2023, pp 261-281 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Social capital plays a major role in the Middle Eastern and North African labor markets, with family connections impacting opportunities for employment and income. Little is known, however, about the stock of social capital and its composition and distribution across the socioeconomic groups, countries, and years in this region. This chapter proposes a probabilistic Bayesian-clustering approach for measuring social capital, based on socializing activities, types of social networks, and trust. Ordered-probability regressions help evaluate the effects of social capital on employment outcomes, accounting for worker demographics. An application to data from the 2000-2014 World Values Surveys for 16 MENA countries shows that socializing is associated with creative occupations, social networks with autonomous but less creative jobs, and trust with routine jobs. Creative jobs promoted by the Fourth Industrial Revolution favor socializing workers with limited social networks and trust.

Keywords: Development Studies; Geography; Politics and Public Policy Sociology and Social Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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