Determinants of Social Capital: New Evidence on Religion, Diversity and Structural Change

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 368-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCUS ALEXANDER
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Precise Understanding ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
New Evidence

Americans not only bowl less today than they did fifty years ago, but also some bowl more than others. This is one of the major and simple messages of Robert Putnam's influential study of social capital in America. Using a variety of data sources, Putnam documents a significant variation in the states' levels of social capital, while arguing for specific general causes of the decline of social capital across the United States. Here, we evaluate the power of Putnam's theory in explaining state-level variation of stocks of social capital. We find that the strongest determinants of social capital levels are basic social and economic differences between states, such as education, church membership, farming and unemployment. Controlling for these determinants, we also find no evidence for a much-debated link between diversity and social capital.Since the publication of Putnam's book, a growing quantitative literature on social capital has contributed to a much more nuanced and theoretically precise understanding of the link between social capital and the quality of American democracy. Pamela Paxton, as well as Dora Costa and Matthew Kahn, have re-examined Putnam's finding of the aggregate decline in social capital in the United States since the 1960s. Putnam's claim that higher levels of social capital improve the functioning of democracy on the state level has been examined systematically by, among others, Stephen Knack and Tom W. Rice. On a methodological level, Eric M. Uslaner has argued for a need to disaggregate different concepts of trust, and focus on generalized social trust and its effect on making democracy more effective.

scholarly journals Trends in Quality-Adjusted Skill Premia in the United States, 1960–2000

2011 ◽  
Vol 101 (6) ◽  
pp. 2309-2349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Carneiro ◽  
Sokbae Lee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
College Enrollment ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
The United States ◽  
Average Quality ◽  
Demand And Supply ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
College Premium

This paper presents new evidence that increases in college enrollment lead to a decline in the average quality of college graduates between 1960 and 2000, resulting in a decrease of 6 percentage points in the college premium. A standard demand and supply framework can qualitatively account for the trend in the college and age premia over this period, but substantial quantitative adjustments are needed to account for changes in quality. (JEL I23, J24, J31)

Guillermo del Toro

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dolores Tierney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Alfonso Cuaron ◽  
The 1960S

Guillermo del Toro (b. 1964) is an Oscar-winning Mexican director, screenwriter, producer, novelist, film scholar, curator, and nonfiction writer who works internationally on English-language and Spanish-language projects in Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and the United States and across a number of different media, including film, television, animation, and novels. Although he has worked in multiple genres, including horror (Mimic (1997), Blade II (2002), Crimson Peak (2015)), action/fantasy (Hellboy (2004), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)), science fiction (Pacific Rim (2013)), and hybrids of these and other genres (The Shape of Water (2017)), he is most known for the gothic sensibility of many of his projects (Cronos (1993), The Devil’s Backbone (2001), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Crimson Peak (2015)). Relatedly, Del Toro’s Cronos and his subsequent films, including those he has produced have contributed greatly to the rehabilitation of the horror and fantasy genres from the cultural disreputability they suffered through the 1960s to the early 1990s and also facilitated more horror production in Mexico going forward. In addition to the gothic quality of his work, Del Toro’s auteur status is often traced through the recurring imagery, themes, and monsters that appear across his oeuvre and through the recurring preoccupations with the contiguity of real and fantasy worlds and with ghosts as manifestations of the (historical and political) past. Although Del Toro has made and been involved in the production of some notable franchise films in recent years, directing Blade II, Hellboy, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, receiving a screenwriting credit for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013), and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) he has also turned down several opportunities to work on franchise films in the Narnia and Harry Potter series (passing on directing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban but suggesting his compatriot Alfonso Cuarón for the job instead) and leaving the production of The Hobbit films after work on the scripts. He’s also received writing credit on Trox Nixey’s Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (2010).

State- and County-Level Social Capital as Predictors of County-Level Suicide Rates in the United States: A Lagged Multilevel Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 003335492097655
Author(s):  
Saloni Dev ◽  
Daniel Kim
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Black People ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Suicide Mortality ◽  
County Level ◽  
Standard Deviation Increase ◽  
Suicide Rates ◽  
Prevalence Of Depression

From 1999 through 2017, age-adjusted suicide rates in the United States rose by 33% (from 10.5 to 14.0 per 100 000 population). Social capital, a key social determinant of health, could protect against suicide, but empirical evidence on this association is limited. Using multilevel data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we explored state- and county-level social capital as predictors of age-adjusted suicide rates pooled from 2010 through 2017 across 2112 US counties. In addition, we tested for causal mediation of these associations by state-level prevalence of depression. A 1-standard deviation increase in state-level social capital predicted lower county-level suicide mortality rates almost 2 decades later (0.87 fewer suicides per 100 000 population; P = .04). This association was present among non-Hispanic Black people and among men but not among non-Hispanic White people and women. We also found evidence of partial mediation by prevalence of depression. Our findings suggest that elevating state- and county-level social capital, such as through policy and local initiatives, may help to reverse the trend of rising suicide rates in the United States.

Health Insurance in an Era of Declining Social Capital

World Affairs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 183 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-358
Author(s):  
Jackson Williams
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Healthy People ◽  
Sharp Decline ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Health Insurance

Putnam’s seminal work on social capital focused on early forms of health insurance as both a result, and accelerator, of the norms of reciprocity and social trust that foster cooperation. Yet, while social capital has been studied as a factor supporting community-based health insurance in developing countries, there has been no analysis of its role in U.S. health insurance. With repeal of the mandate to carry health insurance, this product is once again a purely voluntary purchase, and bears analysis as a cooperation problem. Putnam later documented a sharp decline in social capital in the United States. If social capital undergirds participation in health insurance, we can expect reduced reciprocity to lower willingness to cross-subsidize the sick. Waning social capital could also manifest itself in reduced trust that other healthy people will purchase insurance and lack of trust in the providers and manufacturers who make claims on the insurance pool.

Think tanks and policy analysis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Rich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
The 1960S

Since the 1960s, think tanks have proliferated in the United States, especially ideological think tanks, with conservative think tanks coming to substantially outnumber liberal organization. In this environment, the quality of analysis from think tanks is often in question and consumers of their work seem to be more often attracted to analysis that supports preexisting point of view rather than the most rigorously produced research. For sure, think tanks matter; they are among the most important sources of analysis in American policymaking. But in order to be influential, think tank analysts must target their audiences clearly and be relentless in marketing their work.

scholarly journals Support for immigration reduction and physician distrust in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 205031211665256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank L Samson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
General Trust ◽  
Physician Trust ◽  
National Probability Sample

Objectives: Health research indicates that physician trust in the United States has declined over the last 50 years. Paralleling this trend is a decline in social capital, with researchers finding a negative relationship between immigration-based diversity and social capital. This article examines whether physician distrust is also tied to immigration-based diversity and declining social capital. Methods: Data come from the 2012 General Social Survey, one of the gold standards of US public opinion surveys, using a national probability sample of 1080 adult US respondents. Key measures included support for reducing levels of immigration to the United States and multiple measures of physician trust. Results: The results of ordinary least squares regressions, using survey weights, indicate that support for reducing immigration is positively linked to physician distrust, bringing physician distrust into the orbit of research on diversity and declining social capital. Models controlled for age, education, income, gender, race, nativity, conservatism, unemployed status, lack of health insurance, and self-rated health. Furthermore, analyses of a subset of respondents reveal that measures of general trust and some forms of institutional trust do not explain away the association between support for immigration reduction and physician distrust, though confidence in science as an institution appears relevant. Conclusion: Consistent with diversity and social capital research, this article finds that an immigration attitude predicts physician distrust. Physician distrust may not be linked just to physician–patient interactions, the structure of the health care system, or health policies, but could also be tied to declining social trust in general.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolette D. Manglos-Weber
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Research ◽  
Evangelical Christianity ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Religious Membership ◽  
Religious Landscape

The introduction to the book presents its central argument about religious membership as a basis of social trust. It explains the background of the research, particularly trends in immigration to the United States and the historic place of the religious congregation as a vehicle for integration. It describes the changes that have occurred in immigration since the 1960s, and how greater diversity among immigrants has led to wide variation in patterns of integration. It also explains how these trends, along with the global rise in Evangelical Christianity, have affected how new immigrants interact with the religious landscape of the United States, and in particular how they view available options for religious membership. Finally, it presents the central research questions of the study, and gives an overview of how the research was conducted.

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