Social capital and individual well-being in the post-disaster period: The case of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico

Abstract

In 2017, Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico, damaging infrastructure and dwellings, causing severe economic losses and well-being impacts, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. In this context, cooperative behavior, trust, solidarity and community resilience are crucial components of social recovery. Still, little empirical evidence focuses on the relationship between social capital (SC) and subjective well-being (SWB) in the post-disaster period. This article estimates the relationship between SC and SWB using data from the 2018 World Values Survey wave 7 and the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute. It disentangles different components of SC using an instrumental variable (IV) approach that alleviates many empirical issues that arise in SWB-SC estimations. Given the complexity of this relationship, our approach rigorously identifies the direction and magnitude of each SC component. Results show that this relationship is diverse, since informal SC ties such as friends, neighborhood, and membership in organizations (bonding and bridging) have positive and significant effects, while the linking component, approximated by trust in government, shows a negative relationship. These results provide valuable policy recommendations focused on strengthening existing community instances that foster resilience and municipal capacity to promote social recovery.