American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
The Effects of Social Networks on Employment and Inequality
American Economic Review
(pp. 426–454)
Abstract
We develop a model where agents obtain information about job opportunities through an explicitly modeled network of social contacts. We show that employment is positively correlated across time and agents. Moreover, unemployment exhibits duration dependence: the probability of obtaining a job decreases in the length of time that an agent has been unemployed. Finally, we examine inequality between two groups. If staying in the labor market is costly and one group starts with a worse employment status, then that group's drop-out rate will be higher and their employment prospects will be persistently below that of the other group.Citation
Calvó-Armengol, Antoni, and Matthew O. Jackson. 2004. "The Effects of Social Networks on Employment and Inequality." American Economic Review 94 (3): 426–454. DOI: 10.1257/0002828041464542JEL Classification
- J64 Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
- Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Social and Economic Stratification