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Social Capital and Self-Rated Health. An IV Analysis

Redig, Josefine LU and Voon, Michelle LU (2014) NEKN01 20132
Department of Economics
Abstract
This paper studies the contextual effects of social capital on individual self-rated health in a cross sectional analysis using individual level data from 44 European Countries. The question is addressed with an Ordinary Least Squares regression as well as an Instrumental Variable analysis. A contextual effect of social capital on individual self-rated health is found and the findings imply that higher country-level social capital has a detrimental effect on individual self-rated health. It is also found that it is crucial to account for the interaction effect between individual- and country-level social capital in order to fully understand the influences of social capital on health. Trusting individuals’ self-rated health benefit from... (More)
This paper studies the contextual effects of social capital on individual self-rated health in a cross sectional analysis using individual level data from 44 European Countries. The question is addressed with an Ordinary Least Squares regression as well as an Instrumental Variable analysis. A contextual effect of social capital on individual self-rated health is found and the findings imply that higher country-level social capital has a detrimental effect on individual self-rated health. It is also found that it is crucial to account for the interaction effect between individual- and country-level social capital in order to fully understand the influences of social capital on health. Trusting individuals’ self-rated health benefit from higher country-level social capital, as opposed to distrustful individuals’. Based on these findings it is therefore suggested that, in order to improve health, policy actions should not be targeted solely at increasing country-level social capital but also individual-level social capital. (Less)
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author
Redig, Josefine LU and Voon, Michelle LU
supervisor
organization
course
NEKN01 20132
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
social capital, instrumental variables, contextual effects, interaction variable, self-rated health
language
English
id
4285577
date added to LUP
2014-02-11 15:35:58
date last changed
2014-02-11 15:35:58
@misc{4285577,
  abstract     = {{This paper studies the contextual effects of social capital on individual self-rated health in a cross sectional analysis using individual level data from 44 European Countries. The question is addressed with an Ordinary Least Squares regression as well as an Instrumental Variable analysis. A contextual effect of social capital on individual self-rated health is found and the findings imply that higher country-level social capital has a detrimental effect on individual self-rated health. It is also found that it is crucial to account for the interaction effect between individual- and country-level social capital in order to fully understand the influences of social capital on health. Trusting individuals’ self-rated health benefit from higher country-level social capital, as opposed to distrustful individuals’. Based on these findings it is therefore suggested that, in order to improve health, policy actions should not be targeted solely at increasing country-level social capital but also individual-level social capital.}},
  author       = {{Redig, Josefine and Voon, Michelle}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Social Capital and Self-Rated Health. An IV Analysis}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}