All that Glitters Ain’t Gold!

This paper focuses on the cross-national and longitudinal relationships between social capital, GDP, and well-being. The question it tries to address is: is economic growth eroding social capital over time? I find that in countries where economic growth is accompanied by increasing income inequality, social capital is eroded. Additionally, we focus on the interplay of social capital, GDP, and well-being, explore the role of social capital as a predictor of subjective well-being over various time-spans, and compares this result with the role of GDP.