The institutional embeddedness of social capital. A multilevel investigation across 24 European countries.

This study contributes to earlier studies aimed at the question whether the welfare state crowds out social capital or not by examining to what extent the welfare state affects the value of social capital. The present article investigates the effects of three sources of social capital on occupational prestige and test whether these effects are moderated by welfare state effort in terms of social spending. Multilevel analyses based on European Social Survey (ESS) 2003 and International Monetary Fund (IMF) data, including 39,299 persons from 24 European countries, provides evidence that welfare state effort decreases the value of social capital.