In an increasingly fragmented and unequal world, how can insights from social network data help to improve opportunity for everyone?
Raj Chetty, professor of public economics at Harvard University shares findings from research analysis of Meta data on the relationship between the social connections of individuals and economic mobility in the US.
Research led by Harvard’s Opportunity Insights used large-scale privacy-protected social network datasets to study social capital in neighbourhoods, schools and colleges.
Professor Chetty was joined by Lucy Makinson, head of policy at the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) to explore the findings in more detail. For example:
- What are the key implications in this US data for other countries and regions?
- How can these findings be further developed, and policy recommendations suggested to help improve social connectivity and economic mobility?
- What interventions could be made to enable these actions – and do they extend to the services themselves?
The UK leg of this work is being taken forward by a coalition of partners including the RSA, BIT and Neighbourly Lab.
