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The welfare state and the roles of social capital in subjective well-being: The crowding-out and crowding-in arguments revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2023

Naoki Akaeda Open the ORCID record for Naoki Akaeda [Opens in a new window]
Naoki Akaeda*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University, 3-3-35 Yamate-cho, Suita-shi, Osaka 564-8680 Japan
*
Email: akaeda@kansai-u.ac.jp
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Abstract

In international comparative research, significant advances have been made in the study of the effect of social capital and the welfare state on subjective well-being (SWB). However, few studies have examined how the welfare state influences the impact of social capital on SWB. To fill this gap, from the perspectives of the crowding-out and crowding-in hypotheses, this study explores whether welfare provisions alter the role of three dimensions of social capital – namely, social trust, formal social contact, and informal social contact, in SWB. The present study utilises international comparative data from nine waves of the European Social Survey of 2002 to 2019 and a two-way fixed-effects model to evaluate the cross-level interaction effects of welfare provisions and the three dimensions of social capital on SWB. This analysis reveals that welfare spending strengthens the positive association between social capital and SWB.

Keywords

welfare provisionssocial capitalsubjective well-beingcomparative longitudinal survey datatwo-way fixed-effects model
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , April 2025 , pp. 392 - 411
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Naoki Akaeda is an Associate Professor of the Faculty of Sociology of Kansai University. He received his PhD in human sciences at Osaka University in 2011. He conducts research on how social capital, including social trust, civic participation, family, relatives and friends, and well-being vary depending on the characteristics of countries and residential areas. He studies social capital, welfare state policies, subjective well-being, international comparative research, urban sociology, and quantitative methods.

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