Social Connectedness in Urban Areas

28 Pages Posted: 9 Jul 2019 Last revised: 13 Feb 2023

See all articles by Michael Bailey

Michael Bailey

Facebook

Patrick Farrell

Princeton University - Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Theresa Kuchler

New York University (NYU)

Johannes Stroebel

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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Date Written: July 2019

Abstract

We use anonymized and aggregated data from Facebook to explore the spatial structure of social networks in the New York metro area. We highlight the importance of transportation infrastructure in shaping urban social networks by showing that travel time and travel costs are substantially stronger predictors of social connectedness between zip codes than geographic distance is. We also document significant heterogeneity in the geographic breadth of social networks across New York zip codes, and show that much of this heterogeneity is explained by the ease of access to public transit, even after controlling for socioeconomic characteristics of the zip codes' residents. When we group zip codes with strong social ties into hypothetical communities using an agglomerative clustering algorithm, we find that geographically non-contiguous locations are grouped into socially connected communities, again highlighting that geographic distance is an imperfect proxy for urban social connectedness. We also explore the social connections between New York zip codes and foreign countries, and highlight how these are related to past migration movements.

Suggested Citation

Bailey, Michael and Farrell, Patrick and Kuchler, Theresa and Stroebel, Johannes, Social Connectedness in Urban Areas (July 2019). NBER Working Paper No. w26029, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3416329

Michael Bailey (Contact Author)

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Patrick Farrell

Princeton University - Princeton School of Public and International Affairs ( email )

Princeton University
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Theresa Kuchler

New York University (NYU) ( email )

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Johannes Stroebel

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business ( email )

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National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

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