Effect of Social Capital on welfare of Rural Households in South-western States, Nigeria
Authors:
BALOGUN Olubunmi
Publication Type: Journal article
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Abstract
This study conducted an empirical investigation on the effects of social capital on welfare of rural households in the southwestern, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was employed. The data for the study were collected with the aid of structured questionnaires from three hundred and ninety nine households in Ekiti and Osun states. The data were analyzed using descriptive and regression techniques. The average age of the households head in the study areas was 41.3 years. Households belong to at least two associations and the most important one is religion association. Average household size is 5.0 members and has about 66.7 percent index of participation. However, the level of heterogeneity index is 54.7 percent while meeting attendance index of the households represents halves of the maximum recorded. Cash contribution index is surprisingly low with value of 16.8 percent while labour contribution index is 66.3 percent and with mean social capital value of 15.21. The result of regression show that location, marital status, household size, primary occupation cash contribution index and heterogeneity index of households significantly impacted welfare. The use of instrumental variable lead to an increase in the value of adjustment R2 from 0.2302 to 0.2564 compared with the use of the actual social capital index. Policy that enhances better strong social ties of poor households is recommended for poverty alleviation