Capitale sociale e qualità dei sistemi sanitari: una prima ipotesi di causazione

The paper analyses the possible causes of the failures of Southern Italian health systems. The social capital aims to offer an explanation of the varying levels of efficiency of Italian health services. The result is a theoretical hypothesis in which social capital comes into play as a key factor especially determining the quality of health services. This is followed by the definition and calculation of a performance index (PI) and the estimation of a linear regression model,testig if the PI of the regions is dependent upon the index of social capital and variables which give the determinants of the organizational efficiency of health services and the quality of human capital. The concluding remarks end the paper.