Voluntary participation and social capital: the mediating role of economic growth

The main objective of this paper is to investigate how different levels of GDP and unemployment influence the voluntary activity participation rate. By considering data for Italian regions and for the EU28 Member States, a log-linear model is used to analyses if and how different economic conditions can influence volunteering. Main results from this study show that the lower unemployment rates and the higher income levels are associated with the higher voluntary activity participation rate. Different elasticity however exists between Italian regions and EU28 Member States. The voluntary activity participation rate in Italy has been shown to be more sensitive to GDP variations than the European one. On the contrary, changes on employment generate higher volunteering variations in EU28 than in Italy. The results provided in this paper can be useful for policies and further researches oriented to investigate how economic conditions can influence voluntary activity participation rate.