abstract: 'Social capital-the strength of an individual''s social network and

  community-has been identified as a potential determinant of outcomes

  ranging from education to health(1-8). However, efforts to understand

  what types of social capital matter for these outcomes have been

  hindered by a lack of social network data. Here, in the first of a pair

  of papers(9), we use data on 21 billion friendships from Facebook to

  study social capital. We measure and analyse three types of social

  capital by ZIP (postal) code in the United States: (1) connectedness

  between different types of people, such as those with low versus high

  socioeconomic status (SES); (2) social cohesion, such as the extent of

  cliques in friendship networks; and (3) civic engagement, such as rates

  of volunteering. These measures vary substantially across areas, but are

  not highly correlated with each other. We demonstrate the importance of

  distinguishing these forms of social capital by analysing their

  associations with economic mobility across areas. The share of high-SES

  friends among individuals with low SES-which we term economic

  connectedness-is among the strongest predictors of upward income

  mobility identified to date(10,11). Other social capital measures are

  not strongly associated with economic mobility. If children with low-SES

  parents were to grow up in counties with economic connectedness

  comparable to that of the average child with high-SES parents, their

  incomes in adulthood would increase by 20\% on average. Differences in

  economic connectedness can explain well-known relationships between

  upward income mobility and racial segregation, poverty rates, and

  inequality(12-14). To support further research and policy interventions,

  we publicly release privacy-protected statistics on social capital by

  ZIP code at https://www.socialcapital.org.'
affiliation: 'Chetty, R (Corresponding Author), Harvard Univ, Dept Econ, Cambridge,
  MA 02138 USA.

  Jackson, MO (Corresponding Author), Stanford Univ, Dept Econ, Stanford, CA 94305
  USA.

  Kuchler, T; Stroebel, J (Corresponding Author), NYU, Stern Sch Business, New York,
  NY 10012 USA.

  Chetty, Raj; Hendren, Nathaniel, Harvard Univ, Dept Econ, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA.

  Jackson, Matthew O., Stanford Univ, Dept Econ, Stanford, CA 94305 USA.

  Kuchler, Theresa; Stroebel, Johannes; Gong, Sara, NYU, Stern Sch Business, New York,
  NY 10012 USA.

  Fluegge, Robert B.; Gonzalez, Federico; Grondin, Armelle; Jacob, Matthew; Johnston,
  Drew; Koenen, Martin; Mudekereza, Florian; Rutter, Tom; Thor, Nicolaj; Townsend,
  Wilbur; Zhang, Ruby, Harvard Univ, Opportun Insights, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA.

  Laguna-Muggenburg, Eduardo, Grammarly, San Francisco, CA USA.

  Bailey, Mike; Barbera, Pablo; Bhole, Monica; Wernerfelt, Nils, Meta Platforms, Menlo
  Pk, CA USA.'
author: Chetty, Raj and Jackson, Matthew O. and Kuchler, Theresa and Stroebel, Johannes
  and Hendren, Nathaniel and Fluegge, Robert B. and Gong, Sara and Gonzalez, Federico
  and Grondin, Armelle and Jacob, Matthew and Johnston, Drew and Koenen, Martin and
  Laguna-Muggenburg, Eduardo and Mudekereza, Florian and Rutter, Tom and Thor, Nicolaj
  and Townsend, Wilbur and Zhang, Ruby and Bailey, Mike and Barbera, Pablo and Bhole,
  Monica and Wernerfelt, Nils
author-email: 'chetty@fas.harvard.edu

  jacksonm@stanford.edu

  tkuchler@stern.nyu.edu

  johannes.stroebel@nyu.edu'
author_list:
- family: Chetty
  given: Raj
- family: Jackson
  given: Matthew O.
- family: Kuchler
  given: Theresa
- family: Stroebel
  given: Johannes
- family: Hendren
  given: Nathaniel
- family: Fluegge
  given: Robert B.
- family: Gong
  given: Sara
- family: Gonzalez
  given: Federico
- family: Grondin
  given: Armelle
- family: Jacob
  given: Matthew
- family: Johnston
  given: Drew
- family: Koenen
  given: Martin
- family: Laguna-Muggenburg
  given: Eduardo
- family: Mudekereza
  given: Florian
- family: Rutter
  given: Tom
- family: Thor
  given: Nicolaj
- family: Townsend
  given: Wilbur
- family: Zhang
  given: Ruby
- family: Bailey
  given: Mike
- family: Barbera
  given: Pablo
- family: Bhole
  given: Monica
- family: Wernerfelt
  given: Nils
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04996-4
earlyaccessdate: AUG 2022
eissn: 1476-4687
esi-highly-cited-paper: Y
esi-hot-paper: Y
files: []
issn: 0028-0836
journal: NATURE
keywords-plus: 'LABOR-MARKET OUTCOMES; INCOME INEQUALITY; NETWORK STRUCTURE;

  NEIGHBORHOODS; OPPORTUNITY; DYNAMICS; EXPOSURE; IMPACTS'
language: English
month: AUG 4
number: '7921'
number-of-cited-references: '88'
orcid-numbers: 'Jackson, Matthew O./0000-0001-9846-4249

  Jacob, Matthew/0000-0002-3037-7330

  Johnston, Drew/0000-0002-1483-3420'
pages: 108+
papis_id: 0d4dfcf8f84ad50e1e9244d90f146b71
ref: Chetty2022socialcapital
times-cited: '53'
title: 'Social capital I: measurement and associations with economic mobility'
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000834747600001
usage-count-last-180-days: '35'
usage-count-since-2013: '100'
volume: '608'
web-of-science-categories: Multidisciplinary Sciences
year: '2022'