This paper offers elaborate analyses regarding the effects of social-as well as institutional trust as parts of social capital on subjective well-being (SWB) by using data from the European Social Survey, including 36 countries and eight time-points between 2002 and 2016. We analyze (1) The development of trust and SWB on the aggregate level; (2) The effect of trust on SWB on the individual cross-sectional level; and (3) The longitudinal and crosssectional effect of trust on SWB on the aggregate level while considering control variables based on previous research. We observe a weak positive trend regarding social trust as well as SWB over time, but no significant change in institutional trust. However, trends are far from homogeneous across countries. In accordance to previous studies, we find a positive effect of social trust on SWB. This effect holds on the individual cross-sectional level for every participating country, but also on the longitudinal level. In view of institutional trust, we see a positive effect on SWB on the individual and aggregate cross-sectional level, but not over time. Thus, this study particularly sheds new light on this relation, indicating that it´s cross-sectional relation is due to confounding variables. Moreover, we observe no relation between economic growth and SWB after controlling for unemployment, but a positive effect of decreasing unemployment and inflation on SWB. Our data suggests that establishing an environment with high social trust across Europe would be rewarded with a happy society.

In this study we investigated the amount of social capital as well as its effect on subjective well-being for the whole Austrian population and separately for rural-and urban areas. By using the Austrian Social Survey 2018, we were able to analyze various social capital dimensions based on a conceptual model developed by Kawachi (2008), namely informal and formal social capital, social support as well as social and institutional trust. We observed differences between rural and urban areas in the social-capital dimension of informal social capital: Individuals in rural areas report more contacts with lower-skilled vocations and more family contacts while individuals from urban areas report more social participation and more contact with a close friend. For the Austrian population as a whole, more contacts with highly educated professions, frequent contact (at least several times a week) with a close friend, as well as social and institutional trust, foster subjective well-being. Frequent contact with up to three distinct family members fosters subjective well-being for the entire Austrian sample as well as for individuals living in rural-, but not in urban areas. This study extends previous research by showing different amounts of informal social capital between urban and rural areas as well as different effects on subjective well-being. To summarize, our results confirm the beneficial influence of certain social capital dimensions on subjective well-being in Austria taking into account control variables based on previous research, while showing different patterns and effects of informal social capital between urban and rural areas.

ZusammenfassungGesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt, Solidarität und Vertrauen sind während der Corona-Krise zu viel beschworenen Schlagwörtern geworden. Sie stehen für eine Form sozialen Kapitals, das in Zeiten der Krise eine wesentliche Ressource zu deren Bewältigung darstellen soll und auch von politischer und medizinischer Seite oftmals eingefordert wird. Eng verbunden mit dem Begriff der Solidarität ist jener des sozialen Vertrauens. Das Vertrauen in andere Menschen sowie in zentrale gesellschaftliche Institutionen wird als wichtige Komponente des Sozialkapitals einer Gesellschaft betrachtet und gilt als wesentliche Grundlage für den gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt. Das Buchkapitel beschäftigt sich mit der Solidarität und dem sozialen Vertrauen in der österreichischen Bevölkerung während der ersten Welle der Covid-19-Pandemie anhand der Daten des Austrian Corona Panel Projects. Untersucht wird, wie sich das Ausmaß des sozialen Vertrauens im Vergleich zu früher verändert hat und inwieweit es Unterschiede zwischen verschiedenen Bevölkerungsgruppen gibt, die von der Pandemie besonders betroffen sind (z. B. Vorerkrankte, Personen in beengten Wohnverhältnissen, Alleinlebende, Eltern von schulpflichtigen Kindern, Alleinerziehende, beruflich Betroffene). Des Weiteren wird untersucht, wie sich die Wahrnehmung des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalts während der Zeit der Covid-19-Pandemie entwickelt hat, inwieweit sich solidarisches Handeln in verschiedenen Personengruppen unterscheidet und in welchem Ausmaß soziales Vertrauen zum solidarischen Handeln beiträgt.

Previous research indicates a positive relation between social trust, institutional trust and subjective well-being. Besides theoretical assumptions and cross-sectional relations, only few studies so far examined the causal structure between these concepts. However, previous studies showed contradictory results, possibly due to different methods and datasets used. Hence, we analyzed the causal structure between the three concepts on the aggregate country-level using the European Social Survey, which offers a total of 217 observations from 30 countries, nested in nine time-points between 2002 and 2018. We targeted a causal effect by using a multilevel bivariate cross-lagged analysis. This way we analyzed if previous values of the respective explanatory variable predicts future values of the respective criterion variable. Using this method, we were able to (1) separate the relevant within-country from the between-countries effect, (2) control for different effects in different countries, (3) control for covariates as well as for autoregression of the respective criterion variable over time, and (4) control for residual correlation between the respective criterion variables. Our results suggest a causal effect from subjective well-being to social trust, but little evidence for a reverse causal pathway. Further, we found no effect from social trust and subjective well-being on institutional trust and only small but negative effects vice versa. The results suggest treating social and institutional trust not as preconditions of subjective well-being, but rather as independent facets for the quality of life of a society as already implemented by the OECD’s better-life index, amongst others.

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