Premium
Social Cohesion and Economic Growth: An Empirical Investigation
Author(s) -
Pervaiz Zahid,
Chaudhary Amatul R.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
australian economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8462
pISSN - 0004-9018
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8462.12128
Subject(s) - cohesion (chemistry) , social capital , proxy (statistics) , group cohesiveness , empirical research , social psychology , panel data , psychology , demographic economics , economics , sociology , econometrics , social science , mathematics , statistics , chemistry , organic chemistry
This study is an attempt to empirically investigate the effect of social cohesion on economic growth by using panel data for a large set of countries. We have used two different indices—Intergroup Cohesion and Membership of Clubs and Voluntary Associations—as a proxy for social cohesion. Our empirical findings suggest that different dimensions of social cohesion do not have the same kind of effect on economic growth. Intergroup Cohesion (bridging social capital) has a positive and significant effect, whereas Membership of Clubs and Voluntary Associations (bonding social capital) has a negative and significant relationship with economic growth.