Surpassing Poverty: the role of social capital in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte

Abstract

This article approaches the role of the social capital in the overcoming of the poverty in urban areas. Different of other studies that adopt a macro perspective for social capital, this article analyzes it as something inherent to the interactions between individuals, being capable to bring individual returns. Social capital is measured on the basis of the association of the individuals in diverse types of social organizations. The hypothesis, of that, exactly controlling for human capital and socioeconomic origin variables, how much bigger the individual reserve of social capital, bigger will be its possibility to get an income that allows it to surpass the poverty line, was tested by means of a logistic regression model, that evaluate the effect of variables in the probability of an individual surpass the poverty line. The data for this study are secondary (2002 edition of the Research of the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte/UFMG/BRAZIL). The results show that to be a member of social organizations has a significant effect in the possibilities of escaping poverty in a great metropolitan region of Brazil.