Inequality and social capital in the EU regions: a multidimensional analysis

Figures & data

Table 1. Variables and descriptive statistics.

Topic	Variable	Source	Observations	Mean	SD	Minimum	Maximum
Inequality	Loss in HD	Author’s own elaboration on EUROSTAT	2460	0.0536512	0.0118929	0.0236553	0.1043195
	Human Inequality Coefficient	Author’s own elaboration on EUROSTAT	2460	0.0529438	0.0103841	0.0352967	0.0822167
	Gini Index	Author’s own elaboration on EUROSTAT	2460	0.23146	0.0311632	0.16176	0.31326
	Atkinson on Income	Author’s own elaboration on EUROSTAT	2460	0.0865701	0.0200392	0.04784	0.14611
	Atkinson on Education	Author’s own elaboration on EUROSTAT	2460	0.0569192	0.0169023	0.02916	0.10241
	Atkinson on Health	Author’s own elaboration on EUROSTAT	2460	0.0153422	0.0040907	0.0067	0.03552
Social Capital	Trust	Author’s own elaboration on ESS data	2460	0.5836829	0.1456369	0.08	0.92
	Social Networks	Author’s own elaboration on ESS data	2460	0.1004959	0.0571756	0	0.31
	Bonding Social Capital	ESS: voluntary work – political party	2424	0.0560891	0.0748423	0	0.70
	Bridging Social Capital	ESS: voluntary work – other organization	2424	0.2087129	0.1249825	0	0.63
Production Structure	Cluster Diversification	Author’s own elaboration on ECO data	2460	0.2931633	0.1065506	0	1
	Cluster Specialization	Author’s own elaboration on ECO data	2460	0.5315893	0.1682114		1
Institutions	Quality of Government (QoG)	EQI, Quality of Government Institute	2255	0.7205366	0.1649555	0.09	1
Geography	Degree of Urbanization	EUROSTAT and ECO	2448	0.4726225	0.2384658	0	1

Table 2. Correlation between core variables.

	Trust	Social Networks	Bonding social capital	Bridging social capital	Loss in HD	HI coefficient	Atkinson measure on Income	Gini Income	Clusters Diversification	Clusters Specialization	QoG	Urbanization
Trust	1
Social Networks	0.39	1
Bonding social capital	–0.10	0.02	1
Bridging social capital	0.34	0.59	0.37	1
Loss in HD	–0.55	–0.37	0.13	–0.31	1
Human Inequality coefficient	–0.61	–0.40	0.13	–0.35	0.90	1
Atkinson measure on Income	–0.57	–0.48	0.11	–0.42	0.80	0.88	1
Gini Income	–0.59	–0.51	0.10	–0.45	0.80	0.89	0.99	1
Clusters Diversification	–0.11	0.13	0.12	0.17	0.00	–0.02	–0.08	–0.07	1
Clusters Specialization	0.37	0.18	–0.08	0.20	–0.42	–0.46	–0.35	–0.37	0.00	1
Quality of Government	0.65	0.36	–0.14	0.24	–0.50	–0.57	–0.57	–0.59	–0.11	0.37	1
Urbanization	0.16	–0.06	–0.10	–0.02	–0.01	0.00	0.04	0.02	–0.22	0.20	0.08	1

Table 3. Regressions estimates and standard errors^a for all dependent variables.

	TRUNC.reg	OLS
	Loss	Loss	HI coefficient	Gini	Atkinson income	Atkinson education	Atkinson health
Trust	–0.0299896	–0.0299894	–0.0282781	–0.0639722	–0.0413542	–0.0430714	–0.0004087
Standard error	0.0037593***	0.0037623***	0.003484***	0.0106753***	0.0070407***	0.0059844***	0.001605
Social Networks	–0.031583	–0.0315824	–0.0263207	–0.1547718	–0.08959	0.0228503	–0.0122223
Standard error	0.0074606***	0.0074666***	0.0067409***	0.0209071***	0.0138593***	0.0143132	0.0036881***
Quality of Government	–0.0119467	–0.0119466	–0.0134615	–0.045639	–0.0280777	–0.0173688	0.0050619
Standard error	0.0028726***	0.0028749***	0.0027317***	0.0068918***	0.0045538***	0.0053869***	0.0009633***
Degree of urbanization	0.002636	0.002636	0.0032584	0.0109599	0.0087787	–0.0024268	0.0034232
Standard error	0.0022052	0.002207	0.0021001	0.0059358*	0.0040156**	0.0039572	0.0008761***
R^2	–	0.3606	0.4538	0.5017	0.4620	0.2635	0.1123
Observations	2448	2448	2448	2448	2448	2448	2448

Notes: ^aRobust, to control for heteroskedasticity, and clustered per region.

***p < 0.01; **p < 0.05; *p < 0.1 Root mean square error (RMSE) is close to 0.

Table 4. Regressions estimates and standard errors^a for all dependent variables.

	TRUNC.reg	OLS (1)
	Loss	Loss	HI coefficient	Gini	Atkinson income	Atkinson education	Atkinson health
Trust	–0.015***	–0.015***	–0.013***	–0.046***	–0.032***	–0.002*	–0.004*
Standard error	0.004	0.004	0.003	0.011	0.008	0.004	0.003
Cluster diversification	–0.023***	–0.023***	–0.022***	–0.073***	–0.055***	–0.009*	–0.002*
Standard error	0.007	0.007	0.004	0.016	0.011	0.006	0.003
Int.eff_Trust&clusters	0.033***	0.033***	0.029***	0.091***	0.071***	0.013*	0.005*
Standard error	0.011	0.011	0.008	0.029	0.020	0.009	0.006
Social Networks	–0.028***	–0.028***	–0.012**	–0.059**	–0.040**	0.000*	0.002*
Standard error	0.009	0.009	0.006	0.024	0.017	0.011	0.006
Cluster specialization	–0.006***	–0.006***	–0.003**	–0.013***	–0.007*	–0.002*	0.000*
Standard error	0.002	0.002	0.001	0.005	0.004	0.002	0.001
Int.eff_SN&specialization	0.047***	0.047***	0.032***	0.114***	0.090***	0.019*	–0.013*
Standard error	0.016	0.016	0.011	0.040	0.029	0.017	0.011
Quality of Government	–0.013***	–0.013***	–0.016***	–0.071***	–0.046***	0.003*	–0.004**
Standard error	0.002	0.002	0.002	0.007	0.005	0.002	0.002
Degree of urbanization	0.001*	0.001*	0.001**	0.002*	0.002*	0.000*	0.002**
Standard error	0.001	0.001	0.001	0.003	0.002	0.001	0.001
R^2	–	0.746	0.933	0.888	0.866	0.955	0.609
Observations	2244	2244	2244	2244	2244	2244	2244

Notes: ^aRobust, to control for heteroskedasticity, and clustered per region.

***p < 0.01; **p < 0.05; *p < 0.1 Root mean square error (RMSE) is close to 0.

Table 5. Random and fixed effects compared, coefficients and standard errors.^a

	RE (3)			FE (2)
	Loss	HI coefficient	Gini	Loss	HI coefficient	Gini
Trust	–0.015***	–0.010***	–0.029***	–0.012**	–0.009***	–0.023***
Standard error	0.004	0.002	0.008	0.005	0.002	0.008
Cluster diversification	–0.023***	–0.021***	–0.055***	–0.020***	–0.019***	–0.047***
Standard error	0.007	0.004	0.010	0.007	0.003	0.010
Int.eff_Trust&clusters	0.037***	0.031***	0.077***	0.036***	0.029***	0.065***
Standard error	0.011	0.007	0.023	0.012	0.007	0.022
Social Networks	–0.035***	–0.021***	–0.102***	–0.041***	–0.022***	–0.105***
Standard error	0.010	0.006	0.019	0.011	0.006	0.019
Cluster specialization	–0.007***	–0.004***	–0.017***	–0.008***	–0.004***	–0.017***
Standard error	0.002	0.001	0.003	0.002	0.001	0.003
Int.eff_SN&specialization	0.058***	0.050***	0.199***	0.070***	0.051***	0.203***
Standard error	0.016	0.009	0.031	0.018	0.010	0.031
Quality of Government	–0.013***	–0.016***	–0.072***	–	–	–
Standard error	0.002	0.002	0.007	–	–	–
Degree of urbanization	0.002*	0.003***	0.009***	0.010***	0.008***	0.026***
Standard error	0.001	0.001	0.003	0.003	0.001	0.005
Rho	0.120	0.570	0.605	0.768	0.970	0.955
Observations	2244	2244	2244	2244	2244	2244

Notes: ^aRobust and clustered per region.

***p < 0.01; **p < 0.05; *p < 0.1 Root mean square error (RMSE) is close to 0.

Table 6. RE and FE on Atkinson measures in single dimensions, coefficients and standard errors.^a

	RE (3)			FE (2)
	Atkinson income	Atkinson education	Atkinson health	Atkinson income	Atkinson education	Atkinson health
Trust	–0.024***	–0.006**	0.000*	–0.020***	–0.005**	–0.001*
Standard error	0.006	0.003	0.001	0.006	0.003	0.001
Cluster diversification	–0.048***	–0.014***	–0.002*	–0.042***	–0.013**	–0.003*
Standard error	0.008	0.005	0.002	0.008	0.005	0.002
Int.eff_Trust&clusters	0.068***	0.022**	0.006*	0.060***	0.020***	0.006*
Standard error	0.017	0.008	0.003	0.017	0.008	0.003
Social Networks	–0.073***	0.009*	–0.001*	–0.075***	0.010***	–0.001*
Standard error	0.014	0.008	0.002	0.014	0.008	0.002
Cluster specialization	–0.013***	–0.002*	0.001**	–0.012***	–0.002***	0.001**
Standard error	0.002	0.001	0.001	0.002	0.001	0.001
Int.eff_SN&specialization	0.146***	0.002*	0.004*	0.149***	–0.001*	0.004*
Standard error	0.023	0.011	0.004	0.023	0.011	0.004
Quality of Government	–0.045***	0.004*	–0.006***	–	–	–
Standard error	0.005	0.002	0.002	–	–	–
Degree of urbanization	0.008***	0.002**	–0.001*	0.021***	0.005***	–0.003***
Standard error	0.002	0.001	0.001	0.003	0.002	0.001
Rho	0.588	0.542	0.872	0.943	0.979	0.941
Observations	2244	2244	2244	2244	2244	2244

Notes: ^aRobust and clustered per region.

***p < 0.01; **p < 0.05; *p < 0.1 Root mean square error (RMSE) is close to 0.

Table A1. Truncated regression residuals regressed on predictors.

	Trust	Social networks	Cluster diversification	Cluster specialization	Quality of government	Degree of urbanization
Coefficients	3.39E–11	7.36E–11	1.94E–11	4.74E–11	2.96E–11	2.64E–11
Standard errors	0.00088	0.00226	0.00120	0.00076	0.00077	0.00054
R^2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Observations	2244	2244	2244	2244	2244	2244

Table A2. Results of the Hausman test, FE and RE.

	FE (b)	RE (B)	Difference (b – B)	SE sqrt(diag(V_b – V_B))
Trust	–0.0121091	–0.0145196	0.0024106	0.0017158
Cluster diversification	–0.02043	–0.0234656	0.0030356	0.002261
Int.eff_Trust&clusters	0.0364226	0.0374755	–0.0010529	0.0039094
Social Networks	–0.0408051	–0.0345927	–0.0062124	0.0035404
Cluster specialization	–0.0078639	–0.0071242	–0.0007397	0.000764
Int.eff_SN&specialization	0.0697965	0.0584637	0.0113328	0.0064247
Degree of urbanization	0.0098137	0.0016467	0.008167	0.0030884
2001bn.year	0.0010325	0.0010697	–0.0000372	.
2002.year	0.0010069	0.0010861	–0.0000791	.
2003.year	0.0001047	0.0002507	–0.000146	0.0000213
2004.year	–0.0004465	–0.000328	–0.0001186	.
2005.year	–0.0020784	–0.001918	–0.0001605	0.0000288
2006.year	–0.0017887	–0.001551	–0.0002377	0.0000649
2007.year	–0.003183	–0.0029579	–0.0002252	0.0000592
2008.year	–0.003885	–0.0034998	–0.0003852	0.0001247
2009.year	–0.004	–0.0041943	0.000	0.0000563
2010.year	–0.0050927	–0.0048925	–0.0002002	0.0000662

Notes: b = Consistent under Ho and Ha; obtained from xtreg.

B = Inconsistent under Ha, efficient under Ho; obtained from xtreg.

Test: Ho: difference in coefficients not systematic chi2(17) = (b – B)'[(V_b – V_B)^(–1)](b – B) = 18.71 Prob > chi2 = 0.3456. (V_b – V_B is not positive definite).