Friendship network composition and subjective well-being

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. AbstractUsing data from the UK Community Life Survey, we present the first study to examine the relationship between heterogeneity in one's friendship network and subjective wellbeing. We measure network heterogeneity by the extent to which one's friends are similar to oneself with regard to ethnicity and religion. We find that people who have friendship networks with characteristics dissimilar to themselves have lower levels of subjective wellbeing. Specifically, our two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimates, using measures of ethnic and religious diversity based on the Herfindahl-type fractionalization index that are flipped between adjoining rural/urban areas as instruments, suggest that a standard deviation increase in the proportion of one's friends from different ethnic (religious) groups is associated with a decrease of 0.276 (0.451) standard deviations in subjective wellbeing. a positive effect on wellbeing, the composition of friendship networks are likely to have varying effects on wellbeing. The primary objective of this paper, then, is to examine how the degree of heterogeneity of one's friendship network is related to one's wellbeing. To measure heterogeneity in one's friendship networks we focus on ethnic and religious heterogeneity. Because friendship networks are endogenous, we instrument for friendship network composition using a flipped measure of ethnic and religious diversity, based on the Herfindahl-type fractionalization index (Greenberg, 1956). Using data from the UK Community Life Survey, we find that an increase in the proportion of respondents' friends from different ethnic and religious groups, respectively, is associated with lower levels of subjective wellbeing. Specifically, our two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimates, using the flipped measures of ethnic and religious diversity as instruments, suggest that a standard deviation increase in the proportion of one's friends from different ethnic (religious) groups is associated with a decrease of 0.276 (0.451) standard deviations in subjective wellbeing. We also observe some differences based on age and gender, although the results are mostly homogenous between different ethnicities and people of different religious beliefs.We contribute to the literature by presenting the first study that examines the effects of network composition on wellbeing. Despite the explosion of research on the determinants of wellbeing and particularly, the role of friendship in enhancing wellbeing, no ...

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