Education and social capital: empirical evidence from microeconomic analyses

Social capital is considered an important asset for individuals, groups, communities and society because it is related to individual health and socio-economic status, and it affects the crime rate, social cohesion, and social welfare. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a detail description of the formation of individual social capital and the role of education, with an emphasis on education endogeneity and gender differences. Meta-analysis is performed to evaluate the possible sources of the variations in the effect of education on social capital in the relevant literature. The one-factor model and the single treatment model are applied to the data of the National Child Development study in order to quantify the exact impact of education. The empirical findings in this dissertation reveal that schooling variance is a key source of variation in individual social capital outcomes, directly or indirectly. Education posts much higher returns for men than for women on both dimensions of individual social capital: social trust and social participation. The education effect is even negative for women in the study of membership of voluntary groups, whilst there is a strongly positive estimate for men in the studies of social trust and voluntary participation. The study shows that increased pressure from the workplace decreases satisfaction with the job, lowers perception of personal happiness, and diverts available time or energy away from voluntary participation.