Social capital investment and human capital investment: complements or substitutes for high skilled workers

Abstract

There is a suggestion that individual social capital investment has been decreasing as it has become a substitute for investment in human capital to promote career development. Lower social capital investment can reduce flows of information across networks, harm matching in the labour market and create a less civic society. We find that there is a limited complementarity between social capital and human capital investment for high skilled workers. Beyond this point there is a trade-off between social capital accumulation and returns to human capital. This applies particularly to high skilled workers with greater time pressures.