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Do Social Relations Affect Economic Welfare? A Microeconomic Empirical Analysis

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  • Antoni, Giacomo Degli

Abstract

Over the last few years, many studies have shown that social networks affect the socioeconomic development. This paper presents evidence, through the Italian microdata representative of the entire Italian population, that the quality and quantity of interpersonal relations of agents can increase their economic welfare. Two proxies of interpersonal relations at an individual level are considered: a proxy for the density and one for the quality of network structure of personal contacts. Both seem to have a positive effect on the level of household economic welfare of agents. This result proves robust to the inclusion of a variety of control variables and to the use of different econometric methods.

Suggested Citation

  • Antoni, Giacomo Degli, 2007. "Do Social Relations Affect Economic Welfare? A Microeconomic Empirical Analysis," Knowledge, Technology, Human Capital Working Papers 9330, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:feemkt:9330
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.9330
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    Cited by:

    1. D'ANGELO Emanuela & LILLA Marco, 2007. "Is there more than one linkage between Social Network and Inequality?," IRISS Working Paper Series 2007-12, IRISS at CEPS/INSTEAD.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor and Human Capital;

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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