The Strength of Absent Ties: Social Integration via Online Dating
- Author(s)
- Philipp Viktor Hergovich, Josue Ortega
- Abstract
We used to marry people to whom we were somehow connected. Since we were more connected to people similar to us, we were also likely to marry someone from our own race. However, online dating has changed this pattern; people who meet online tend to be complete strangers. We investigate the effects of those previously absent ties on the diversity of modern societies.
We find that social integration occurs rapidly when a society benefits from new connections. Our analysis of state-level data on interracial marriage and broadband adoption (proxy for online dating) suggests that this integration process is significant and ongoing.- Organisation(s)
- Department of Economics
- External organisation(s)
- Columbia University in the City of New York
- No. of pages
- 49
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3044766
- Publication date
- 10-2017
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 502047 Economic theory
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/15a9175f-2784-4034-981f-f814058a06d0