Does social capital reduce poverty? A cross-sectional study of rural household in Bangladesh
International Journal of Social Economics
ISSN: 0306-8293
Article publication date: 7 August 2018
Issue publication date: 15 October 2018
Abstract
Purpose
Social capital accrues to numerous positive socioeconomic outcomes, especially poverty reduction in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between social capital and poverty reduction with special reference to Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural setting of north-eastern Bangladesh, where primary data were collected from 310 households. Exploratory factor analysis was pursued to extract multiple dimensions of social capital. Afterward, multivariate binary logistic regression model was applied to measure the association between social capital dimensions and poverty. In this model, odds ratios were used to present the regression coefficients.
Findings
The study confirms that social network, norms of reciprocity, social trust and civic participation were associated with poverty. The logistic regression reveals that social trust, social networks, norms of reciprocity and civic participation are negatively associated with poverty by OR=0.488, 95% CI=0.377–0.633; OR=0.709, 95% CI=0.542–0.927; OR=0.619, 95% CI=0.473–0.812; and OR=0.783, 95% CI=0.598–1.025 units.
Originality/value
This study has a significant policy implication related to reducing entrenched poverty in Bangladesh as social capital has a potential to bring about a concomitant improvement in the condition of the poor.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors of this paper have not made the research data set openly available. Any enquiries regarding the data set can be directed to the corresponding author.
Citation
Islam, M.S. and Alam, K. (2018), "Does social capital reduce poverty? A cross-sectional study of rural household in Bangladesh", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 45 No. 11, pp. 1515-1532. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-07-2017-0295
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited