Social Capital and Economic Well-Being in Germany's Regions: An Exploratory Spatial Analysis

This article explores social capital in Germany in line with Putnam’s claim that social capital benefits regional economic well-being. In particular, this macro-level study examines whether the number of civic associations, as a measure of a vibrant civil society, is related to higher GDP. Since this study uses spatial data on civic associations and official statistics concerning the German NUTS-3 regions, different spatial matrices model interdependencies among the dependent units of analysis. Exploratory spatial data analysis illustrates spatial patterns between districts as well as each variable’s radius of influence. Cross-sectional spatial models help examine social capital’s effect on regional economic well-being. Results of these analyses are two-fold: first, the geographical scope of social capital is locally concentrated, whereas the sphere of economic well-being encloses a wider area. Second, social capital correlates positively with economic well-being in Germany’s many regions

Are Joiners Trusters? A Panel Analysis of Participation and Generalized Trust

Freiwilliges Engagement und soziales Vertrauen werden als zwei Dimensionen des Konzepts “Sozialkapital” verstanden. Inwiefern diese Dimensionen miteinander in Beziehung stehen und ob freiwilliges Engagement ursächlich für soziales Vertrauen ist, wird in der Forschung diskutiert. Die Ergebnisse sind unterschiedlich und oft sogar widersprüchlich, was teilweise auf verschiedenen Messindikatoren und teilweise auf unzulänglicher statistischer Analyse beruht. Dieser Artikel untersucht daher die kausale Beziehung zwischen Partizipation in Vereinen und generalisiertem Vertrauen. Die Kausalanalyse basiert auf den Langzeitdaten des Schweizer Haushalts-Panel der Jahre 2002 bis 2012. Mit Hilfe von Dynamischen Panelmodellen werden die Reziprozität von Partizipation und Vertrauen als auch das Vertrauensniveau der Vorjahre in der statistischen Analyse berücksichtigt. Die Resultate zeigen einen kausalen Effekt, insofern dass die Teilnahme in Vereinen das generalisierte Vertrauen erhöht. Teilnehmer haben zwar ein höheres Vertrauensniveau a priori, aber ihr Vertrauen nimmt dennoch zu, wenn sie sich engagieren.As two sides of the same coin – namely that of social capital – civic engagement and social trust have been conceived of as interrelated concepts. Existing studies examine whether civic participation is causally linked to generalized trust. However, the empirical evidence remains ambiguous: partly due to multidimensional measurement and partly in response to inadequate statistical analyses. The contribution of this paper, which uses the Swiss Household Panel data set between 2002 and 2012, is to analyze the causal relationship between participation in associations and generalized trust. Dynamic Panel Models account for the reciprocity of trust and participation with lagged dependent and lagged endogenous independent variables. The positive results support a causal effect of civic participation on generalized trust and show that joiners are trusters a priori, but also that they become trusters as they join

Social Capital and Economic Well-Being in Germany's Regions: An Exploratory Spatial Analysis

This article explores social capital in Germany in line with Putnam’s claim that social capital benefits regional economic well-being. In particular, this macro-level study examines whether the number of civic associations, as a measure of a vibrant civil society, is related to higher GDP. Since this study uses spatial data on civic associations and official statistics concerning the German NUTS-3 regions, different spatial matrices model interdependencies among the dependent units of analysis. Exploratory spatial data analysis illustrates spatial patterns between districts as well as each variable’s radius of influence. Cross-sectional spatial models help examine social capital’s effect on regional economic well-being. Results of these analyses are two-fold: first, the geographical scope of social capital is locally concentrated, whereas the sphere of economic well-being encloses a wider area. Second, social capital correlates positively with economic well-being in Germany’s many regions