Can social support compensate for missing family support? An examination of dropout rates in Italy

School dropout limits the development of human capital, and despite the achievement of a third level degree being a common practice in western economies, the dropout at the secondary level is still a relatively widespread phenomenon in Italy. The household support to young people is relevant in influencing young people's educational opportunities, but nevertheless, this support sometimes is lacking in a country that has historically attributed little importance to advanced education. In Italy, the scarcity of school-related support mechanisms is one of the causes of a dropout rate of more than 15% after the first year of upper secondary school in some regions. We suggest that another support may be necessary in society, and it could be integrated with family support. We test whether three different forms of social capital can counteract the dropout of young Italians considering regional data and using fixed and random effects models and a two-stage least squares approach for Centre–North and South Italy. The results suggest that social capital does not function as a mechanism to counteract dropout in Italy, while the family's cultural-economic background plays an important role, mainly in the Centre–North.