Redistributive Social Capital: the Effects of Networks of Civic Engagement on Subnational Inequality in Argentina

Abstract

Although all Argentine provinces improved their income distribution between 2002 and 2013, some of them reducedin equality more than others. The literature on subnational inequality identifies some socioeconomic and political factors that explain part of this variation, but it hardly develops the role social capital has in that outcome. This work argues that more extensive networks of civic engagement influence the perceptions of its members and lead to an increase in individual actions with redistributive effects. On the one hand, the analysis of the distribution of income between 2003 and 2011 shows that the provinces with better indicators of social capital tend to have lower in equality. On the other hand, individual level data indicate that people who participate tend to perceive in equality as a more serious social problem. These results identify understudied paths for redistribution which might contribute to the design of public policies.