Inequality is rising where social network segregation interacts with urban topology

Gergő Tóth, Johannes Wachs, Riccardo Clemente, Ákos Jakobi, Bence Ságvári, János Kertész and Balázs Lengyel
Additional contact information
Gergő Tóth: Centre for Economic-and Regional Studies
Riccardo Clemente: University of Exeter
Ákos Jakobi: Eötvös Loránd University
Bence Ságvári: Centre for Economic-and Regional Studies
János Kertész: Central European University

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Social networks amplify inequalities by fundamental mechanisms of social tie formation such as homophily and triadic closure. These forces sharpen social segregation, which is reflected in fragmented social network structure. Geographical impediments such as distance and physical or administrative boundaries also reinforce social segregation. Yet, less is known about the joint relationships between social network structure, urban geography, and inequality. In this paper we analyze an online social network and find that the fragmentation of social networks is significantly higher in towns in which residential neighborhoods are divided by physical barriers such as rivers and railroads. Towns in which neighborhoods are relatively distant from the center of town and amenities are spatially concentrated are also more socially segregated. Using a two-stage model, we show that these urban geography features have significant relationships with income inequality via social network fragmentation. In other words, the geographic features of a place can compound economic inequalities via social networks.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21465-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
Working Paper: Inequality is rising where social network segregation interacts with urban topology (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-21465-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21465-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().