Social Capital as a Determinant of Population Health Outcomes: A Global Perspective

This study contributes to the health literature by decomposing health outcomes into three dimensions that are physical health, mental health and well-being of individuals. Where physical health is measured using life expectancy, infant mortality and self-rated health indicators while mental health is measured using stress index and addition of smoking in both males and females. Finally, well-being is measured using the index of happiness. The empirical analysis is conducted using OLS and GMM for 61 countries from 1980 to 2014. Overall results indicate that social capital is positively associated with all dimensions of health outcomes as high trusting individuals report better health outcomes in comparison to low trusting individuals. The results also reveal that the impact of social capital on mental health is stronger than the impact on physical health. Moreover, social capital is more conducive for controlling stress index than producing happiness. The main message of this research is that social capital has the power to influence diverse dimensions of population health. Therefore, the public policies need to focus on social indicators to overcome health disease burden.