The Poverty Reduction And Social Capital Relationship: Comparative Findings From Selected OECD Countries

Abstract

One of the most important elements of the fight against poverty is social capital. Social capital is of critical importance in the fight against poverty because of its ability to activate existing resources in the economic development process of countries and to prevent all resources, opportunities, and, potentials from being idle, especially for the poor. In our study, which aims to analyze the positive effects of social capital on poverty within the scope of new data and samples, analyzes were made within the scope of selected OECD countries RE findings from the econometric analysis indicate that all variables have a positive effect on GDP per capita for the 2012-2019 period in 12 selected countries. In general, our results are consistent with previous studies. The social capital coefficient gives the biggest positive effect on GDP per capita compared to other types of capital. It is important for developing countries to implement policies that increase social capital levels (especially bridging and linking types of social capital) for economic development in terms of increasing their per capita GDP levels.