Individual Social Capital Inequality: Puting to the Test Lin's Model in the Spanish Case.
In the present paper, we analyze one of the holes of social capital theory, the explanatory proposals on individual social capital inquality, that is, the causal explanatory variables on the extension and effectiveness of personal networks. We put to the test and, in some point, we try to complet Lin’s explanatory proposal. Firstly, we study from a theoretical point of view social capital conceptual inconsistency and Lin’s model. Secondly and from an empirical point of view, we analyzed an extensive and specific survey on Spanish population personal networks. This study is focused on structure and determinants of this individual networks, using PCA, regression and structural methods. Our results confirm Lin’s distinction between accessibility and mobilization, and introduce a significative explanatory distinction between expert and domestic mobilization. At the same time the results constitute a base for developing a more ambitious study on individual social capital inequality and its determinants. The results show a high level of inequality on expert mobilization, even more relevant than income inequality.