Social capital and economic mobility

How can we give children from low-income families better chances of rising up out of poverty?  This talk will discuss recent research using data on billions of friendships from Facebook that identifies economic connectedness -- the degree of social interaction between low- and high-income people -- as a key predictor of economic mobility.  It will then discuss what factors determine the degree of interaction across class lines and policy implications to increase the forms of social capital most relevant for upward income mobility.

Raj Chetty is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University and the Director of Opportunity Insights, which uses big data to study the science of economic opportunity: how we can give children from all backgrounds better chances of succeeding?

Camille Landais, who will chair the event, is Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics and an associate of LSE's International Inequalities Institute. At STICERD he is Director of the Public Economics Programme and Co-Director of the Hub for Equal Representation in the Economy. He is the Head of the French Council of Economic Advisers.

Find out how you can attend here.