title: From social capital to health--and back.
abstract: We assess the causal relationship between health and social capital, measured by generalized trust, both at the individual and the community level. The paper contributes to the literature in two ways: it tackles the problems of endogeneity and reverse causation between social capital and health by estimating a simultaneous equation model, and it explicitly accounts for mis-reporting in self-reported trust. The inter-relationship is tested using data from the first four waves of the European Social Survey for 25 European countries, supplemented by regional data from Eurostat. Our estimates show that a causal and positive relationship between self-perceived health and social capital does exist and that it acts in both directions. In addition, the magnitude of the structural coefficients suggests that individual social capital is a strong determinant of health, whereas community level social capital plays a considerably smaller role in determining health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rocco
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fumagalli
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suhrcke
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012737:Sex Factors; D066270:Social Capital; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: D71; I12; I18; causality; health; mis-reporting; social capital