Education, Social Capital and Cultural Goods

The relationships between social capital and educational outcomes are well explored and debated in the literature on education. Several empirical assessments claim that social capital can be positively linked to educational outcomes. In the same way, in cultural economics literature, there is a broad acknowledgement of the positive relationships between education levels and cultural consumption. This paper presents the first empirical assessment of the causal relationship between education, social capital and cultural goods. A multidimensional analysis based on synthetic indicators of cultural participation, as a measure of cultural goods, education and social capital, is used to highlight a positive relation between the propensity to take part in cultural activities and bridging elements of social capital, such as informal relations with friends and neighbors, participation in civil society organizations and an interest in politics. While further research is needed to understand these causal connections, the empirical results indicate that policies aiming to influence one of these dimensions may be more effective when considering them jointly.