More connection, less community: network formation and local public goods provision

Fuente: arXiv
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Autor principal: Langtry, Alastair
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Langtry, Alastair
author_facet Langtry, Alastair
contents This paper presents a model of network formation and public goods provision in local communities. Here, networks can sustain public good provision by spreading information about people's behaviour. I find a critical threshold in network connectedness at which public good provision drops sharply, even though agents are highly heterogeneous. Technology change can tear a community's social fabric by pushing high-skilled workers to withdraw from their local community. This can help explain rising resentment toward perceived ``elites'' -- their withdrawal actively harms those left behind. Moreover, well-meaning policies that upskill workers can make them worse off by reducing network connectedness.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_06872
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle More connection, less community: network formation and local public goods provision
Langtry, Alastair
Theoretical Economics
This paper presents a model of network formation and public goods provision in local communities. Here, networks can sustain public good provision by spreading information about people's behaviour. I find a critical threshold in network connectedness at which public good provision drops sharply, even though agents are highly heterogeneous. Technology change can tear a community's social fabric by pushing high-skilled workers to withdraw from their local community. This can help explain rising resentment toward perceived ``elites'' -- their withdrawal actively harms those left behind. Moreover, well-meaning policies that upskill workers can make them worse off by reducing network connectedness.
title More connection, less community: network formation and local public goods provision
topic Theoretical Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.06872