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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
| By: | Adermon, Adrian (Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU), UCLS, and UCFS); Brandén, Gunnar (Center for Epidemiology and Community Medicine and Department of Global Public Health, Global and Sexual Health, Karolinska Institutet); Nybom, Martin (Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU), SOFI, and UCLS.) |
| Abstract: | Among economists, empirical analysis of social mobility and the role of parental background is largely carried out in two separate strands of research. The intergenerational mobility literature estimates parent-child persistence in a certain outcome of interest, such as income. In contrast, the equality of opportunity literature is rooted in a normative framework, and has only more recently started generating empirical evidence. Intergenerational mobility regressions are relatively straightforward to estimate, but their normative implications are less obvious. In contrast, measures of equality of opportunity have a policy-relelvant interpretation, but are demanding in terms of data, requiring the researcher to observe a large set of determinants of socioeconomic status for large samples. But maybe the two approaches capture similar underlying dynamics? We compare the two approaches by estimating both equality of opportunity and intergenerational mobility measures — as well as sibling correlations — across 16 birth cohorts within 126 Swedish local labor markets. Using these estimates, we test to what extent the different measures correlate, resulting in insights on the plausibility of interpreting intergenerational mobility measures as informative about equality of opportunity. |
| Keywords: | Equality of opportunity; Intergenerational mobility; Sibling correlations |
| JEL: | D31 D63 J62 |
| Date: | 2025–03–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2025_002 |
| By: | Harris, Tom (Harvard University); Iyer, Shankar; Rutter, Tom; Chi, Guanghua; Johnston, Drew; Lam, Patrick; Makinson, Lucy; Silva, Antonio S.; Wessel, Martin; Liou, Mei-Chen |
| Abstract: | Social capital is widely believed to impact a wide range of outcomes including subjective well-being, social mobility, and community health. We aggregate data on over 20 million Facebook users in the United Kingdom to construct several measures of social capital including cross-type connectedness, social network clustering, and civic engagement and volunteering. We find that social networks in the UK bridge class divides, with people below the median of the socioeconomic status distribution (low-SES people) having about half (47%) of their friendships with people above the median (high-SES people). Despite the presence of these cross-cutting friendships, we find evidence of homophily by class: high-SES people have a 28% higher share of high-SES friends. In part, this gap is due to the fact that high-SES individuals live in neighbourhoods, attend schools, and participate in groups that are wealthier on average. However, up to two thirds of the gap is due to the fact that high-SES people are more likely to befriend other high-SES peers, even within a given setting. Cross-class connections vary by region but are positively associated with upward income mobility: low-SES children who grew up in the top 10% most economically connected local authorities in England earn 38% more per year on average (£5, 100) as adults relative to low-SES children in the bottom 10% local authorities. The relationship between upward mobility and connectedness is robust to controlling for other measures of social connection and neighbourhood measures of income, education, and health. We also connect measures of subjective well-being and related concepts with individual social capital measures. We find that individuals with more connections to high-SES people and more tightly-knit social networks report higher levels of happiness, trust, and lower feelings of isolation and social disconnection. We make our aggregated social capital metrics publicly available on the Humanitarian Data Exchange to support future research. |
| Date: | 2025–03–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:kb7dy_v1 |
| By: | Fernandez-Urbano, Roger |
| Abstract: | This chapter examines the relationship between satisfaction with social life and overall subjective well-being in Spain. Despite increasing recognition of social life as a key determinant of well-being, direct empirical research on its influence remains scarce, particularly in Southern Europe, where much of the existing evidence is anecdotal. Unlike concepts such as social capital, social support, and relational support, satisfaction with social life captures the intrinsic value of social interactions rather than their instrumental utility. It reflects an individual's subjective appraisal of their overall social relationships, encompassing not only close ties but also broader interactions with acquaintances, neighbours, and peripheral contacts. Drawing on data from the first wave of the Global Flourishing Study (2020–2022), this chapter investigates how social life satisfaction contributes to both cognitive and affective well-being. Spanish findings are contextualized within a comparative framework, including high-income, upper-middle-income, and lower-middle-income countries. The results highlight that subjective evaluations of social life play a crucial role in shaping overall well-being, surpassing the influence of individual characteristics. Furthermore, the significance of social life satisfaction for both cognitive and affective well-being increases with socioeconomic development, positioning Spain alongside upper-middle-income countries with collectivistic and Latin cultural orientations. An analysis of heterogeneity within Spain reveals no substantial variations across gender, social background, or regions. However, significant age-related differences emerge, with the importance of social life satisfaction on overall well-being—particularly affective well-being—increasing with age. The chapter concludes by discussing theoretical and practical implications and outlining directions for future research, including methodological considerations. |
| Date: | 2025–03–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:tdm4c_v1 |