Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Hoover Institution | Stanford University

Paul Peterson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University, discussed “Are Connections the Way to Get Ahead? Social Capital, Student Achievement, Friendships, and Social Mobility,” a paper with Angela K. Dills (Western Carolina University) and M. Danish Shakeel (University of Buckingham).

PARTICIPANTS

Paul Peterson, John Taylor, Alphanso Adams, David Arulanantham, Jonathan Berk, Patrick Biggs, Michael Boskin, Chris Dauer, Eugene Fama, David Fedor, Andy Filardo, Morris Fiorina, Robert Hall, Michael Hartney, Nicholas Hope, Ken Judd, Matthew Kahn, Evan Koenig, Roman Kräussl, David Laidler, Matthew Lintker, Elena Pastorino, Ned Prescott, Valerie Ramey, Danish Shakeel, Richard Sousa, Tom Stephenson, Jack Tatom, Eric Wakin

ISSUES DISCUSSED

Paul Peterson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University, discussed “Are Connections the Way to Get Ahead? Social Capital, Student Achievement, Friendships, and Social Mobility,” a paper with Angela K. Dills (Western Carolina University) and M. Danish Shakeel (University of Buckingham).

John Taylor, the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University and the George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution, was the moderator.

PAPER SUMMARY

Chetty and others (2022) say county density of cross-class friendships (referred to here as “adult-bridging capital”) has causal impacts on county inter-generational mobility rates within the United States. In models based on social psychological and educational research, we instead findthat county mobility rates are a function of county density of family capital (higher marriage rates and two-person households), community capital (community organizations, religious congregations, and volunteering), mean student achievement in grades 3-8, and cross-class friendships in high school. Our models use the same dependent variable, similar regression equations and similar control variables employed by Chetty but also include state fixed effects, student achievement, and family, community, school-bridging (cross-class high school friendships), and political (participation and institutional trust) capital. R-squared increases from 0.82 to 0.84 when adult-bridging is incorporated into the model. We infer that mobility rates are shaped primarily by dual-parent presence, supportive community institutions, student achievement and cross-class friendships in high school. To enhance mobility, public policy needs to enhance the lives of disadvantaged young people at home, in school, and in communities, not just the social class of their friendships as adults.

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