An original Tuckwell returns to Scholars House for Alumni speaker series
One of our very first Tuckwell Scholars returned to Scholars House this week for our new Alumni speaker series: “Beyond Graduation: An Occasional Alumni Speakers Series."
This is a new event, which sees Alumni returning to campus when they are in Canberra, for an informal chat with current Tuckwell Scholars to share their journey and learnings beyond graduation.
This provides an incredible opportunity for Scholars to learn directly from someone who has navigated the challenges and has valuable insights that could assist Scholars on their own unique journeys.
Matthew Jacob, from the very first Tuckwell Cohort in 2014, is currently pursuing a PhD in Public Policy at Harvard University. Matthew’s groundbreaking research uses big data to explore the factors influencing intergenerational economic mobility, focusing on the power of social networks.
The following is an event reflection from 2023 Tuckwell Scholar Rosie Sewell
Social capital & Economic mobility
On Tuesday afternoon, Scholars House was alive with questions and reflection as inaugural Tuckwell Scholar, Matthew Jacob, delivered a thought-provoking presentation on Social Capital and Economic Mobility. Currently in the midst of his PhD in Economics at Harvard University, Matthew is analysing big data to shed light on the interplay between intergenerational income and geography on social capital (the value of our social networks) and economic connectedness (the extent of interactions between individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds).
Analysing tax statements, zip codes, your college, Facebook profile, and even your phone model, Matthew has measured economic connectedness, ranking individual’s socio-economic status (SES) against their friends. Unsurprisingly, he found an upward sloping relationship between the variables, meaning, simply, it is unlikely to have friends from different SES backgrounds. In fact, at an average level of economic-connectedness, there is a 22% under-representation of high-SES friends in random-friendship making.
This statistic points to an unfortunate reality: it is difficult to transcend socio-economic status. Moreover, social mobility has actually decreased across generations, challenging the philosophical life-blood of the US that is the American Dream. So, how can we fix this? Matthew highlighted two main determinants of Economic Connectedness to target: exposure and friending bias. The first, exposure, refers to the frequency of interactions between people of different socio-economic backgrounds. Where we live, go to school, university, the jobs we get, are all inputs into this exposure (or lack of). Reflecting on the nature of the Tuckwell Scholarship, Rhys posed the question of whether the scholarship was sufficiently creating ‘exposure’, and how the application process might be adapted to make improvements in this area.
Unfortunately, even if exposure occurs, friending bias can prevent economic connectedness. Friending bias refers to the empirical fact that individuals are more likely to make friends with those similar to them. Flash back to O-week when the Sydney private school kids already knew each other … Friending bias is not impossible to overcome, but is harder to solve from a policy perspective since it is a psychological phenomenon. Molly suggested school uniforms as a mechanism to limit symbols of social class, a thought-provoking idea that Matthew had not yet considered. Fiona countered, describing how the smallest of things - brand of lunch box or pencil case - can be signals of socio-economic class.
Overall, Matthew’s lecture catalysed insightful discussion about policy, privilege, and pedagogy. It was exciting to see and hear from one of the inaugural scholars, and we hope to hear from more!
Tuckwell Trivia: Mathew was also the very first Tuckwell Bell Ringer!
Thank you for popping into Scholars House Matthew, it was a delight to have you here and we are certain our current Scholars will be further inspired after this meeting!
If you are Tuckwell Alumni and would like to participate in future events as a speaker, please contact Tuckwell Alumni Coordinator, Kate Hutchison.
