This study examines the relationship between use of Facebook, a popular online social network site, and the formation and maintenance of social capital. In addition to assessing bonding and bridging social capital, we explore a dimension of social capital that assesses one’s ability to stay connected with members of a previously inhabited community, which we call maintained social capital. Regression analyses conducted on results from a survey of undergraduate students (N = 286) suggest a strong association between use of Facebook and the three types of social capital, with the strongest relationship being to bridging social capital. In addition, Facebook usage was found to interact with measures of psychological well-being, suggesting that it might provide greater benefits for users experiencing low self-esteem and low life satisfaction.

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The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2307%2F3343168.pdf

Development as Freedom

This paper presents evidence that "social capital" matters for measurable economic performance, using indicators of trust and civic norms from the World Values Surveys for a sample of 29 market economies. Memberships in formal groups—Putnam's measure of social capital—is not associated with trust or with improved economic performance. We find trust and civic norms are stronger in nations with higher and more equal incomes, with institutions that restrain predatory actions of chief executives, and with better-educated and ethnically homogeneous populations.

/pdf/does-social-capital-have-an-economic-payoff-a-cross-country-495nwir3gz.pdf

Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-Country Investigation

The gravity model has been widely used to infer substantial trade flow effects of institutions such as customs unions and exchange rate mechanisms. McCallum [1995] found that the US-Canada border led to trade between provinces that is a factor 22 (2,200%) times trade between states and provinces, a spectacular puzzle in light of the low formal barriers on this border. We show that the gravity model usually estimated does not correspond to the theory behind it. We solve the 'border puzzle' by applying the theory seriously. We find that national borders reduce trade between the US and Canada by about 44%, while reducing trade among other industrialized countries by about 30%. McCallum's spectacular headline number is the result of a combination of omitted variables bias and the small size of the Canadian economy. Within-Canada trade rises by a factor 6 due to the border. In contrast, within-US trade rises 25%.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=256086

Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle

The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

Large samples of data from the World Values Survey, the US Benchmark Survey and a comparable Canadian survey are used to estimate equations designed to explore the social context of subjective evaluations of well-being, of happiness, and of health. Social capital, as measured by the strength of family, neighbourhood, religious and community ties, is found to support both physical health and subjective well-being. Our new evidence confirms that social capital is strongly linked to subjective well-being through many independent channels and in several different forms. Marriage and family, ties to friends and neighbours, workplace ties, civic engagement (both individually and collectively), trustworthiness and trust: all appear independently and robustly related to happiness and life satisfaction, both directly and through their impact on health.

/pdf/the-social-context-of-well-being-1udpqkv7yu.pdf

The social context of well-being.

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w9065/w9065.pdf

How's life? combining individual and national variables to explain subjective well-being

This paper attempts to explain international and inter-personal differences in subjective well-being over the final fifth of the twentieth century The empirical work makes use of data from three waves of the World Values survey covering about fifty different countries The analysis proceeds in stages First there is a brief review of some reasons for giving a key role to subjective measures of well-being This is followed by a survey of earlier empirical studies, a description of the main variables used, a report of results and tests, and discussion of the links among social capital, education, income and well-being The main innovation of the paper, relative to earlier studies of subjective well-being, lies in its use of large international samples of data combining individual and societal level variables, thus permitting the simultaneous identification of individual-level and societal-level determinants of well-being This is particularly useful in identifying the direct and indirect linkages between social capital and well-being

How's Life? Combining Individual and National Variables to Explain Subjective Well-Being

The report, published by the Earth Institute and co-edited by the institute’s director, Jeffrey Sachs, reflects a new worldwide demand for more attention to happiness and absence of misery as criteria for government policy. It reviews the state of happiness in the world today and shows how the new science of happiness explains personal and national variations in happiness.

World happiness report

This report argues that the role of human capital in the economic and social development of nations is commonly acknowledged although its exact effects are still in dispute. Recently, increasing attention has been focused on the role of social capital or the role of social relationships and individual abilities in economic activity and social well-being. The report has three main purposes: (1) to describe the current evidence on investment in human capital and its role in economic growth and social well-being; (2) to describe and clarify the new concept of social capital; and (3) to identify the roles of human and social capital in achieving sustainable economic and social development. The chapters are: Emerging social and economic concerns; The evidence on human capital; The evidence on social capital; Policy implications and further research needs. Appendices: Some measures of well-being; Some trends in the social and economic environments; Determinants of school attainment: the research evidence; The impact of human capital on economic growth: some major studies; Are trust and civic engagement declining in OECD countries?

John F. Helliwell

Papers

The social context of well-being.

How's life? combining individual and national variables to explain subjective well-being

How's Life? Combining Individual and National Variables to Explain Subjective Well-Being

World happiness report

The well-being of nations : the role of human and social capital