The role of social capital in self-perception of poverty and the implications for public policy. An exploratory analysis

Abstract

This paper aims at showing to what extent self-perceived poverty in Europe is associated with specifi c household socioeconomic characteristics and particular aspects of household/community social capital endowment, in order to disclose the primary risk factors of family poverty status. Such evidence would help central and local governments to defi ne those economic and social goals which should receive more attention by policies aiming at poverty eradication. In particular, the paper focuses on the associations between a proxy of subjective poverty (ability to make ends meet) and two sets of variables describing, respectively, the household socioeconomic characteristics and the household/ community social capital endowment. In order to pursue this aim, a multiple correspondence analysis is carried out. The empirical analysis is based on the 2009 EU-SILC survey and the Eurostat statistics database. The results show a relevant association between self-perceived poverty and both household socioeconomic characteristics and social capital. Implications for public policies are also discussed.