Mobile but Miserable: Social comparison networks and social mobility

2026-09-06

AI Summary

研究探讨了社会流动性与幸福感之间的倒U型关系，通过构建包含社会比较网络的模型解释了高流动性导致幸福感下降的原因，并提出社会整合可以延长社会流动性带来的益处。

Abstract

Although social mobility is widely viewed as desirable, we document an'inverse-U'shaped relationship with well-being: mobility is positively associated with well-being when low, but the association diminishes as mobility increases and eventually becomes negative. To explain this, we build a model in which agents are embedded in a social comparison network and suffer from falling behind their peers. The model highlights two channels that can cause welfare to be decreasing in mobility at high levels. First, when mobility is high, further increases widen already significant gaps between agents from similar parental backgrounds but of different abilities. Second, when mobility is high, high-ability agents are already relatively well off. So further increases in social mobility increase inequality. We find evidence supportive of both channels in US data. The model also predicts, and data supports, that social integration -- where relationships form more along ability than background lines -- allows societies to benefit from mobility for longer. We interpret this as social mobility being multidimensional with both economic and social dimensions that are complementary.

Problem

• social mobility
• well-being
• social comparison network

Innovation

• social comparison network
• well-being
• social mobility
• inequality
• social integration