流动但痛苦：社会比较网络与社会流动性

中文摘要 AI 辅助

尽管社会流动性被广泛视为理想状态，我们记录了其与幸福感之间的“倒U型”关系：当流动性较低时，流动性对幸福感有正向关联，但随着流动性增加，这种关联逐渐减弱，最终变为负向。为解释这一现象，我们构建了一个模型，其中个体嵌入社会比较网络中，并因落后于同伴而遭受痛苦。该模型突出了两个渠道，可导致高流动性水平下福利随流动性增加而下降。第一，当流动性较高时，进一步增加流动性会扩大来自相似父母背景但能力不同的个体之间本已显著的差距。第二，当流动性较高时，高能力个体已相对富裕，因此社会流动性的进一步增加会加剧不平等。我们在美国数据中找到了支持这两个渠道的证据。该模型还预测，且数据支持，社会融合——即关系更多基于能力而非背景形成——能使社会更长久地受益于流动性。我们将此解释为社会流动性是多维度的，其经济维度与社会维度具有互补性。

英文摘要

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.

发表机构

• University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）
• University of Essex（埃塞克斯大学）
• University of Bristol（布里斯托大学）

机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。