Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to analyze the impact of the three dimensions of social capital (social networks, social trust and social norms) on the happiness of 18 countries in Latin America during the period 2000–2010. This study has found evidence that (i) social relations and participation in voluntary organizations increase the happiness of individuals, (ii) individuals who generally trust in others and in institutions tend to be more satisfied with life than average and (iii) those individuals who meet social norms, are aware of their obligations and are engaged in favor of their community present higher levels of subjective well-being.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
For a detailed description of the model, see, among others, Chapter 15 of Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data by Wooldridge (2002).
- 3.
In the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, the sample is weighted with respect to stratum; in Chile it is weighted with respect to age, sex, educational level and geographical area; in Argentina with respect to sex and age; in Colombia with respect to age, sex, educational level and size of habitat; in Paraguay with respect to type of area, and in Venezuela, it is weighted with respect to sex and educational level. In Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay, the sample is not weighted. More details are also provided by the Methodology Report (Latinobarometro 2000–2010).
- 4.
We use the method of Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to calculate the index. The first principal component is used to derive the weights. This methodology has been used in the paper by Ateca-Amestoy et al. (2011) to calculate the Social Capital Bridging Index.
Bibliography
Aaker, L., & Akutsu, S. (2009). Why do people give? The role of identity in giving. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19, 267–270.
Ahn, N., & Mochón, F. (2010). La Felicidad de Los Españoles: Factores Explicativos. Revista de Economía Aplicada AE, 54(XVIII), 5–31.
Ahn, N., Mochon, F., & De Juan, R. (2012). La Felicidad De Los Jóvenes. Papers Revista de Sociología, 97(2), 407–430.
Argyle, M. (1999). Causes and correlates of happiness. In D. Kahneman & Schwarz (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 353–373). New York: Russell Sage Foundation, op. cit.
Ateca-Amestoy, V., Aguilar, A., & Moro-Egido, I. (2011). Social interactions and subjective well-being: Evidence from Latin America. DFAE-II Working paper 2011–05, Universidad del País Vasco. Bilbao (Spain).
Ateca-Amestoy, V., Cortés, A., & Morodp-Egido, A. (2014). Social interactions and life satisfactions: Evidence from latin America. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15, 527–554.
Bartolini, S. (2011). Happy for how long? How social capital and GDP relate to happiness over time. Working paper N. 621. Dipartimento di Economia Politica e Statistica, Università degli Studi di Siena Francesco Sarracio.
Bechetti, L., Pelloni, A., & Rossetti, F. (2008). Relational goods, sociability and happiness. Kyklos, 61(3), 343–363.
Bjørnskov, C. (2003). The happy few: Cross-country evidence on social capital and life satisfaction. Kyklos, 56(1), 3–16.
Bjørnskov, C. (2008). Social capital and happiness in the United States. Applied Research Quality Life, 3, 43–62.
Bjørnskov, C., Dreher, A., & Fischer, J. (2006). Cross-country determinants of life satisfaction: Exploring different determinants across groups in society. Arbeitspapiere/Working papers no. 145. Konjunkturforschungsstelle. Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research. Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
Bookwalter, J., & Dalenberg, D. (2010). Relative to what or whom? The importance of norms and relative standing to well-being in South Africa. World Development, 38(3), 345–355.
Borooah, K. (2006). What makes people happy? Some evidence from Northern Ireland. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7, 427–465.
Bruni, L., & Stanca, L. (2008). Watching alone: Relational goods, television and happiness. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 65(3), 506–528.
Clark, E., Frijters, P., & Shields, A. (2008). Relative income, happiness, and utility: An explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and other puzzles. Journal of Economic Literature, 46(1), 95–144.
Coleman, J. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95–S120.
Córdova, A. (2009). Methodology note: Measuring relative wealth using household asset indicators. Latin American public opinion project. Americas Barometer Insights, 6, 1–9.
Corral, M. (2011). La economía de la felicidad en las Américas. Perspectivadesde el Barómetro de las Américas, 58, 1–10.
De Juan, R., & Mochon, F. (2012). La felicidad de los latinoamericanos a lo largo del período 2000–2009. Working paper 0212, Departamento de Análisis Económico II, UNED.
Dunn, E., & Norton, M. (2013). Happy money: The science of smarter spending. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Easterlin, A., & Angelescu, L. (2009). Happiness and growth the world over: Time series evidence on the happiness-income paradox, IZA Discussion paper, num. 4.060.
Easterlin, A., Angelescu, L., Switek, M., Sawangfa, O., & Zweig, J. S. (2010). The happiness-income paradox revisited. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). doi:10.1073/pnas.1015962107.
Graham, C., & Felton, A. (2005). Does inequality matter to individual welfare? An initial exploration based on happiness surveys from Latin America. CSED Working paper 38. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
Graham, C., & Felton, A. (2006). Inequality and happiness: Insights from Latin America. Journal of Economic Inequality, 4(1), 107–122.
Grootaert, C., & Van Bastelaer, T. (2001). Understanding and measuring social capital: A synthesis of findings and recommendations from the social capital initiative. Washington, DC: Initiative working paper, num. 24, World Bank.
Gui, B., & Sugden, R. (2005). Why interpersonal relations matter for economics. In B. Gui & R. Sugden (Eds.), Economics and social interaction accounting for interpersonal relations (pp. 1–22). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Hanifan, L. J. (1916). The rural school community centre. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 67, 130–138.
Helliwell, F. (2001). Social capital, the economy and well-being. In K. Banting, A. Sharpe, & F. St-Hilarie (Eds.), The review of economic performance and social progress. The longest decade: Canada in the 1990s (pp. 43–60). Montreal: The Institute for Research on Public Policy.
Helliwell, F. (2006). Well-being, social capital and public policy: What’s new? The Economic Journal, 116(510), C34–C45.
Helliwell, F., & Putnam, R. (2004). The social context of well-being. The Royal Society, 359, 1435–1446.
Hudson, J. (2006). Institutional trust and subjective well-being across the EU. Kyklos, 59, 43–62.
Inglehart, R. (1999). Trust, well-being and democracy. In M. Warren (Ed.), Democracy and trust. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Inglehart, R. (2009). Faith and freedom: Traditional and modern ways to happiness. University of Michigan, Mimeo.
Kingdon, G., & Knight, J. (2007). Community, comparisons and subjective well-being in a divided society. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 64(1), 69–90.
Klein, C. (2011). Do we need social cohesion to be happy? Luxembourg: CEPS/INSTEAD Working paper num. 2011–06.
Latinobarometro Corporation. (2000–2010). Latinobarometro data files.
Latinobarometro Corporation. (2000–2010). Methodology report Latinobarometro.
Leung, A., Fung, L., Fung, T., Kier, C., & Sproule, R. (2011). Searching for happiness: The importance of social capital. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12, 443–462.
Liu, W., & Aaker, L. (2008). The happiness of giving: The time-ask effect. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(3), 543–557.
Lora, E. (Ed.). (2008). Beyond facts: Understanding quality of life. Development in the Americas report. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.
Narayan, D. (1999). Bonds and bridges: Social capital and poverty. Policy Research working paper 2167. World Bank, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network, Washington, DC.
Narayan, & Cassidy. (2001). A dimensional approach to measuring social capital: Development and validation of a social capital inventory. Current Sociology, 49(2), 59–102.
OECD. (2001). The well-being of nations. The role of human and social capital. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation.
Portela, M., & Neira, I. (2012). Capital social y bienestar subjetivo. Un análisis para España considerando sus regiones. Investigaciones Regionales, 23, 5–27.
Portes, A. (1998). Social capital: Its origins and applications in contemporary sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 1–24.
Putman, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Quillian, L. (2006). Can social capital explain persistent racial poverty gaps. National Poverty Center working papers series-12.
Ram, R. (2010). Social capital and happiness: Additional cross-country evidence. Journal of Happiness Studies, 11, 409–418.
Rojas, M. (2006). Life satisfaction and satisfaction in domains of life: Is it a simple relationship? Journal of Happiness Studies, 7, 467–497.
Rothstein, B. (2001). Social capital in the social democratic welfare state. Politics and Society, 29(2), 207–241.
Sacks, D. W., Stevenson, B., & Wolfers, J. (2010). Subjective well-being, income, economic development and growth. NBER working paper series 16441.
Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). La auténtica felicidad. Barcelona: Byblos.
Senik, C. (2004). When information dominates comparison: Learning from Russian subjective panel data. Journal of Public Economics, 88(9–10), 2099–2133.
Senik, C. (2008). Direct evidence on income comparisons in their welfare effects. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 72(1), 408–424.
Stevenson, B., & Wolfers, J. (2008). Economic growth and subjective well-being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox. IZA DP 3654.
Switek, M. (2012). Life satisfaction in Latin America: A size-of-place analysis. Journal of Development Studies, 48(7), 983–999.
Tao, H., & Chiu, S. (2009). The effects of relative income and absolute income on happiness. Review of Development Economics, 13(1), 164–174.
Van Oorschot, W., & Arts, W. (2004). The social capital of European welfare States. The crowding out hypothesis revisited, 2nd Annual ESPAnet conference ‘Meeting the Needs of a New Europe’, Oxford, 9–11 September.
Winkelmann, R. (2009). Unemloyment, social capital, and subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studien, 10, 421–430.
Woolcock, M., & Narayan, D. (2000). Social capital: Implications for development theory, research and policy (T. I. Development, ed.). The World Bank Research Observer, 15(2), 225–249.
Wooldridge, M. (2002). Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data. New York: The MIT Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix
Appendix
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mochón Morcillo, F., de Juan Díaz, R. (2016). Happiness and Social Capital: Evidence from Latin American Countries. In: Rojas, M. (eds) Handbook of Happiness Research in Latin America. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7203-7_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7203-7_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-7202-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-7203-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)