Salary commensurate with social capital

Abstract

People who possess richer social capital can earn more than others can. An econometric analysis reveals that social capital increases a person’s wage income even as human capital does. Previous empirical studies have clarified that gender, academic history, work history and similar social attributes are determinant factors of earnings. They also hint at other social attributes, apart from those mentioned above, that determine earnings. This article suggests that the positive effect of social capital on annual salary is the same for both men and women. This social capital feature differs from the gender inequality effect of human capital on annual salary in Japan.

Keywords:

• wage
• social capital
• Japanese General Social Survey (JGSS)
• gender

JEL Classification:

• J31
• J16
• N35

Acknowledgement

The Japanese General Social Surveys (JGSS) are designed and carried out at the Institute of Regional Studies at Osaka University of Commerce in collaboration with the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo under the direction of Ichiro TANIOKA, Michio NITTA, Noriko IWAI and Tokio YASUDA. The project is financially assisted by Gakujutsu Frontier Grant from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for 1999–2008 academic years, and the datasets are compiled and distributed by SSJ Data Archive, Center for Social Research and Data Archives, Institute of Social Science, the University of Tokyo.

ORCID

Yoshiho Matsunaga http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2773-6870