Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Contextual Impact Of Income Inequality On Social Capital And Adverse Social Outcomes, Jeannie Schiff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An interdisciplinary approach to policy and governance recognizes that many social welfare problems are interrelated, and policy-makers have long recognized a need to address the root causes of these problems. There is much evidence that income inequality is one of these root causes but research suggesting the effect of income inequality is mediated by social capital has complicated the relationship, as have theories of causality that take different approaches. This study takes an ecological approach to these issues to test the relationship between income inequality, social capital and selected adverse outcomes proposed by the relative income hypothesis. The relative income …