Social Capital and Finding a Job: Do Contacts Matter?
作者研究了社会资本是否真的影响劳动力市场结果。虽然很多人通过熟人介绍找工作，但现有研究发现的社交网络与工资或职业声望的正相关关系，可能只是反映了“物以类聚”的倾向，而非因果关系。作者利用四个数据集重新检验，并提出一个因果性检验：如果社会资本真有因果效应，那么高社会资本的工人应该更可能通过熟人找工作。结果发现，现有文献中社会资本的大部分效应，其实源于相似的人更容易成为朋友，而非朋友的特征直接影响了工作结果。
Does social capital affect labor market outcomes? The prevalent use of job contacts to find work suggests that who you know is an important means of getting a good job. Network theories of social capital argue that well-connected workers benefit because of the job information and influence they receive through their social ties. Although a number of studies have found a positive relationship between measures of social capital and wages and/or occupational prestige, little is known about the causal effect of social networks on labor market outcomes. Four data sets are used to reassess findings on the role of social capital in the labor market. A test of causality is proposed based on the argument that if social capital variables do have a causal effect on job outcomes, then workers with high levels of social capital should be more likely to use contacts to find work, all else being equal. Results suggest that much of the effect of social capital in the existing literature reflects the tendency for similar people to become friends rather than a causal effect of friends' characteristics on labor market outcomes.