Bridging Social Capital and Individual Earnings: Evidence for an Inverted U

Katarzyna Growiec , Jakub Growiec

Abstract

Based on data on a cross section of individuals surveyed in the 1999--2002 wave of World and European Values Surveys, we investigate the multilateral associations between bridging social capital, individuals' earnings, as well as social trust and employment status. Our analysis provides robust evidence that the relationship between bridging social capital and earnings is inverted-U shaped. We carry out a range of tests in order to ascertain that this result is not driven by regressor endogeneity or omitted variables bias. We also identify significant interaction effects between bridging social capital, social trust, and employment status.