Impacts of social capital on household welfare: A case study of rural Vietnam

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of social capital on household welfare in rural Vietnam by using ordinary least squares method (OLS) to analyze the cross-sample data collected from the Viet Nam Access to Resources Household Survey in 2018 (VARHS 2018). Research results show that social capital is an important resource that households in rural areas use to create livelihoods and improve welfare. Specifically, the social network of households represented by the number of participating socio-political organizations has a positive impact on household welfare. When the number of organizations in which the household participates increases by 1, household welfare increases by 3.3%. The study emphasizes that, in addition to expanding the social network, households also have to pay attention to the quality of the social network. The quality of the social network is reflected by the attachment, cooperation, sharing and trust of the household with the rest of the organization. The findings of this study show that these factors contribute to increase in household welfare. In addition, some different capitals such as financial capital, human capital, natural capital, physical capital as well as some demographic characteristics also have an impact on household welfare.