Working Paper: NBER ID: w23608
Authors: Michael Bailey; Ruiqing Rachel Cao; Theresa Kuchler; Johannes Stroebel; Arlene Wong
Abstract: We introduce a new measure of social connectedness between U.S. county-pairs, as well as between U.S. counties and foreign countries. Our measure, which we call the "Social Connectedness Index" (SCI), is based on the number of friendship links on Facebook, the world's largest online social networking service. Within the U.S., social connectedness is strongly decreasing in geographic distance between counties: for the population of the average county, 62.8% of friends live within 100 miles. The populations of counties with more geographically dispersed social networks are generally richer, more educated, and have a higher life expectancy. Region-pairs that are more socially connected have higher trade flows, even after controlling for geographic distance and the similarity of regions along other economic and demographic measures. Higher social connectedness is also associated with more cross-county migration and patent citations. Social connectedness between U.S. counties and foreign countries is correlated with past migration patterns, with social connectedness decaying in the time since the primary migration wave from that country. Trade with foreign countries is also strongly related to social connectedness. These results suggest that the SCI captures an important role of social networks in facilitating both economic and social interactions. Our findings also highlight the potential for the SCI to mitigate the measurement challenges that pervade empirical research on the role of social interactions across the social sciences.
Keywords: Social Connectedness; Social Networks; Economic Interactions; Trade; Migration; Patent Citations
JEL Codes: D1; E0; E7; F1; I1; J6; O3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Higher social connectedness between U.S. counties (R23) | Increased trade flows (F19) |
| Higher social connectedness (Z13) | Cross-county migration (R23) |
| Higher social connectedness (Z13) | Higher patent citations (O34) |