An Empirical Study Of The Impact Of Social Capital On The Vulnerability Of Farm Households To Poverty

Poverty vulnerability refers to the likelihood that a household will fall into poverty in the future after having suffered multiple negative impacts,shocks and risks.Poverty vulnerability,as a dynamic and forward-looking indicator,has become a new research and practical challenge in the study of ways to prevent poverty return.Although the battle against poverty has been completely won in China,it is important to note that the total elimination of absolute poverty does not mean that all poverty problems have been solved,but rather that a "new poverty" era,characterised by relative poverty,multidimensional poverty and dynamic poverty,is approaching.According to statistics,about two million of those who have successfully escaped poverty in China are still at some risk of returning to poverty.It is clear that there is an urgent need to avoid the risk of poverty.However,in the past,poverty alleviation policies have mostly focused on the "blood transfusion" function of physical capital and the "blood creation" function of human capital,often ignoring the endogenous role of social capital in poverty reduction.In order to truly eradicate poverty,it is no longer enough to invest in physical and human capital,but to further utilize social capital and invest in social capital to promote the social integration of the poor and the integration of social resources.Based on the above background,this paper is based on the research idea of "problem formulation-literature research-theoretical analysis-empirical research--Based on the research approach of "Formulating the Problem-Literature Research-Theoretical Analysis-Empirical Research",this paper combines social capital theory,vicious circle theory,sustainable livelihood theory and anti-poverty theory to establish a logical link between social capital and the poverty vulnerability of rural households.Specifically,the relationship between social capital and poverty vulnerability is first accurately measured for farm households’ poverty vulnerability,followed by a discussion of the relationship between social capital and poverty vulnerability using the 2018 China Household Budget Tracking Survey(CFPS)data and a benchmark regression model;followed by robustness tests by replacing the dependent variable,changing the sample period and endogeneity tests;and a discussion of household income heterogeneity,household vulnerability heterogeneity and age heterogeneity of household heads from the perspective of The mechanism of influence of social capital changes under different conditions.Finally,based on the robust findings,corresponding policy responses are proposed from the perspective of social capital for the country to prevent poverty return and consolidate rural revitalisation efforts.The main findings of this paper are as follows: firstly,the poverty risk problem of rural households in China is gradually revealed,and the poverty situation and vulnerability of rural households are closely related.Secondly,the innovative finding is that the relationship between social capital and poverty vulnerability is not simply negative,but has a dual effect of promoting and weakening,with an inverted U-shaped relationship between the two strengthening first and then weakening.This result holds true after robustness tests.Thirdly,finding the critical value of social capital in the current period,the sample is mostly distributed in the interval where social capital plays the function of poverty reduction,which proves that it is very relevant to give policy recommendations for consolidating rural revitalization efforts from the negative relationship between the two.Fourthly,it is found that household head factors(age,gender,education),household factors(savings and income)and regional factors have a significant impact on the poverty vulnerability of rural households.Fifth,under heterogeneity analysis,social capital is found to be more effective in reducing poverty for rural households with per capita income below the national average income,medium and low vulnerability rural households,and middle-aged and older rural households.The paper concludes with policy recommendations for China’s efforts to consolidate rural revitalisation: firstly,to establish an early warning system against returning to poverty to prevent the risk of vulnerability;secondly,to focus on the cultivation of social capital to build a favourable development environment;and thirdly,to improve the level of rural construction to alleviate the relative poverty of farm households.