What is the relationship between inequality and social ties? Do personal networks, group memberships, and connections to social resources help level the playing field, or do they reinforce economic disparities? We examine two core empirical issues: the degree of inequality in social ties and their consolidation with income. Using 142,000 person-wave observations from 15 high-quality U.S. data sets, we measure the quantity and quality of social ties and examine their distribution. Our findings show that (1) the Gini coefficient for social ties often exceeds that of income and (2) social ties are concentrated among those with the highest incomes. We introduce an overall inequality–consolidation curve, demonstrating that social ties generally reinforce economic inequality. However, we identify one key exception: there is no class gradient in the use of social ties for job search. These findings contribute to debates about the role of social ties in perpetuating or mitigating inequality.

中文翻译：

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不平等和社会纽带：来自 15 个美国数据集的证据


不平等和社会关系之间有什么关系？个人网络、群组成员资格和与社会资源的联系有助于创造公平的竞争环境，还是加剧了经济差距？我们研究了两个核心实证问题：社会关系的不平等程度及其与收入的整合。使用来自 15 个高质量美国数据集的 142,000 人波观察，我们衡量了社会关系的数量和质量，并检查了它们的分布。我们的研究结果表明，（1） 社会关系的基尼系数经常超过收入的基尼系数，以及 （2） 社会关系集中在收入最高的人群中。我们引入了一条整体不平等-整合曲线，表明社会纽带通常会加剧经济不平等。然而，我们发现了一个关键的例外：在求职中使用社会关系没有阶级梯度。这些发现有助于关于社会关系在延续或减轻不平等方面的作用的辩论。