Being a “social animal”, each person is inherently embedded into a complex structure of social relations. He has role models to aspire to, conformity rules to follow, and expectations to meet. This paper explores the different social influences each person experiences in life. Specifically, I consider how a person’s ethnic community, age reference group, occupational and industry group peers, and residential area neighbors affect his total income. I introduce a novel model of multiple social networks and discuss various identification implications. I apply the model empirically to New York City, which naturally is a very favorable environment to test for multiple social effects. The study uses generous person-level American Community Survey data that cover rich geographic, ethnic, demographic, and employment characteristics. The sample consists of five pooled cross-sections, resulting in about 270,000 observations. I analyze a model with spatial lags in dependent variable SARAR(1,0), a model with spatial lags in disturbance term SARAR(0,1), and a model with spatial lags in both dependent variable and error SARAR(1,1). I address self-selection into groups by correcting the empirical model for neighborhood choice and occupation choice. The main finding of the dissertation is that a person’s income is affected by his occupational group within his neighborhood, by people of the same occupation and industry, by people of the same age group, and by his ethnic group within his neighborhood. Additionally, people that work in the same industry and the same neighborhood have their unobserved characteristics correlated.
","abstract_html":"<p>Being a “social animal”, each person is inherently embedded into a complex structure of social relations. He has role models to aspire to, conformity rules to follow, and expectations to meet. This paper explores the different social influences each person experiences in life. Specifically, I consider how a person’s ethnic community, age reference group, occupational and industry group peers, and residential area neighbors affect his total income. I introduce a novel model of multiple social networks and discuss various identification implications. I apply the model empirically to New York City, which naturally is a very favorable environment to test for multiple social effects. The study uses generous person-level American Community Survey data that cover rich geographic, ethnic, demographic, and employment characteristics. The sample consists of five pooled cross-sections, resulting in about 270,000 observations. I analyze a model with spatial lags in dependent variable SARAR(1,0), a model with spatial lags in disturbance term SARAR(0,1), and a model with spatial lags in both dependent variable and error SARAR(1,1). I address self-selection into groups by correcting the empirical model for neighborhood choice and occupation choice. The main finding of the dissertation is that a person’s income is affected by his occupational group within his neighborhood, by people of the same occupation and industry, by people of the same age group, and by his ethnic group within his neighborhood. Additionally, people that work in the same industry and the same neighborhood have their unobserved characteristics correlated.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Arakelyan, Anna"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":"Economics","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Wim Vijverberg"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":["Karna Basu","Chu-Ping Vijverberg"],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-09-30T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2017-09-30T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:00:13Z","subjects":["Econometrics","Income Distribution","Labor Economics","social networks","group effects","spatial econometrics","New York City"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2233","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Wim Vijverberg"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Karna Basu","Chu-Ping Vijverberg"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Arakelyan, Anna"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2017-07-24T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Economics"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Econometrics","Income Distribution","Labor Economics","social networks","group effects","spatial econometrics","New York City"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2233"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Being a “social animal”, each person is inherently embedded into a complex structure of social relations. He has role models to aspire to, conformity rules to follow, and expectations to meet. This paper explores the different social influences each person experiences in life. Specifically, I consider how a person’s ethnic community, age reference group, occupational and industry group peers, and residential area neighbors affect his total income. I introduce a novel model of multiple social networks and discuss various identification implications. I apply the model empirically to New York City, which naturally is a very favorable environment to test for multiple social effects. The study uses generous person-level American Community Survey data that cover rich geographic, ethnic, demographic, and employment characteristics. The sample consists of five pooled cross-sections, resulting in about 270,000 observations. I analyze a model with spatial lags in dependent variable SARAR(1,0), a model with spatial lags in disturbance term SARAR(0,1), and a model with spatial lags in both dependent variable and error SARAR(1,1). I address self-selection into groups by correcting the empirical model for neighborhood choice and occupation choice. The main finding of the dissertation is that a person’s income is affected by his occupational group within his neighborhood, by people of the same occupation and industry, by people of the same age group, and by his ethnic group within his neighborhood. Additionally, people that work in the same industry and the same neighborhood have their unobserved characteristics correlated.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Who Influences Your Outcomes? The Effect of Culture and Ethnic Origin, Neighborhood and Peers on Personal Income: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of New York City"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Wim Vijverberg"],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Karna Basu","Chu-Ping Vijverberg"],"dc:creator":["Arakelyan, Anna"],"dc:date.available":["2017-07-24T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Being a “social animal”, each person is inherently embedded into a complex structure of social relations. He has role models to aspire to, conformity rules to follow, and expectations to meet. This paper explores the different social influences each person experiences in life. Specifically, I consider how a person’s ethnic community, age reference group, occupational and industry group peers, and residential area neighbors affect his total income. I introduce a novel model of multiple social networks and discuss various identification implications. I apply the model empirically to New York City, which naturally is a very favorable environment to test for multiple social effects. The study uses generous person-level American Community Survey data that cover rich geographic, ethnic, demographic, and employment characteristics. The sample consists of five pooled cross-sections, resulting in about 270,000 observations. I analyze a model with spatial lags in dependent variable SARAR(1,0), a model with spatial lags in disturbance term SARAR(0,1), and a model with spatial lags in both dependent variable and error SARAR(1,1). I address self-selection into groups by correcting the empirical model for neighborhood choice and occupation choice. The main finding of the dissertation is that a person’s income is affected by his occupational group within his neighborhood, by people of the same occupation and industry, by people of the same age group, and by his ethnic group within his neighborhood. Additionally, people that work in the same industry and the same neighborhood have their unobserved characteristics correlated.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2233"],"dc:subject":["Econometrics","Income Distribution","Labor Economics","social networks","group effects","spatial econometrics","New York City"],"dc:title":["Who Influences Your Outcomes? The Effect of Culture and Ethnic Origin, Neighborhood and Peers on Personal Income: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of New York City"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Economics"],"thesis:degree_level":["Doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy"],"thesis:institution_name":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:00:13Z"}