People People: Social Capital and the Labor-Market Outcomes of Underrepresented Groups

Lex Borghans, Bas ter Weel and Bruce Weinberg

No 1494, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Despite indications that interpersonal interactions are important for understanding individual labor-market outcomes and have become more important over the last decades, there is little analysis by economists. This paper shows that interpersonal interactions are important determinants of labor-market outcomes, including occupations and wages. We show that technological and organizational changes have increased the importance of interpersonal interactions in the workplace. We particularly focus on how the increased importance of interpersonal interactions has affected the labor-market outcomes of underrepresented groups. We show that the acceleration in the rate of increase in the importance of interpersonal interactions between the late 1970s and early 1990s can help explain why women’s wages increased more rapidly, while the wages of blacks grew more slowly over these years relative to earlier years.

Keywords: social capital; economics of minorities and races and gender; wage level and structure; interpersonal interactions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J21 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 62 pages
Date: 2005-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-lab, nep-ltv and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Published - published in: Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 2014, 67 (2), 287-334

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Related works:
Working Paper: People People: Social Capital and the Labor-Market Outcomes of Underrepresented Groups (2006)
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