The Economics of Social Capital and Health

This book defines the field of social capital and health. Over the last two decades, there has been a recognition of the importance of social capital (usually defined as ties in the community, attachment to the community, and participation in community activities) and its impact on the health of those in that community. The purpose of this book is to show the growth in the field of social capital and health and to expose readers to a variety of approaches in order to think about and model the question of how health can be improved by investments in community social capital as well as by individual social capital.

An outstanding set of papers will be presented by authors from the United States, as well as from Europe and Asia. These papers are cutting-edge and explore the mechanisms through which social capital affects health. The papers also present the most recent empirical work and discuss the policy implications of their findings. Without a doubt, this will be a landmark book which will make the study of social capital and its impact on health a major area of research in the coming decade.

Sample Chapter(s)
Foreword by Richard M. Scheffler (University of California, Berkeley)
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Economics of Social Capital and Health (46 KB)

Contents:Introduction to the Economics of Social Capital and Health (Sherman Folland and Lorenzo Rocco)What is Social Capital and How Does It Work to Improve Health? (Sherman Folland)How Do We Invest in Social Capital? And Exploration of an Economic Model of Social Capital and Health (Sherman Folland, Oddvar Kaarbøe and Kamrul Islam)Social Capital: An Economics Perspective (Audrey Laporte)How Does Social Capital Arise in Populations? (Sherman Folland and Tor Iversen)Measures of Social Capital (Richard M Scheffler and Yumna Bahgat)The Empirics of Social Capital and Health (Lorenzo Rocco and Elena Fumagalli)Social Capital and Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (José Anchorena, Lucas Ronconi and Sachiko Ozawa)Social Capital and Smoking (Lorenzo Rocco and Beatrice d'Hombres)Policy Implications (Eline Aas)
Readership: Students and professionals interested in health economics.