Abstract: China′s rural areas are a typical “relational society”, and social capital has strong interference in information sharing and resource allocation.Based on the 2016 rural sample data of China′s household tracking survey, this paper uses quantile regression method to examine the impact of social capital on poverty reduction of rural poor households in China from the perspective of income growth and income gap reduction.The results show that: from 2010 to 2016, the incidence of poverty in China′s rural areas is declining year by year, which is mainly due to income growth, rather than narrowing the income gap.Social capital embodied in social network, social participation and social trust can significantly improve the income level of farmers and effectively play a role in poverty reduction. From the perspective of narrowing the income gap, social networks play a more significant role in rural poverty reduction than social participation and social trust. Paying attention to the construction of the social capital of the rural poor, especially improving the quality of the social network of the poor farmers, is of great policy significance for rural poverty reduction.

Key words: social capital, rural poverty, poverty reduction effect, income growth, income gap