[01091] Nonlinear effects of neighborhood influence over college education, and social mobility
Session Time & Room : 3C (Aug.23, 13:20-15:00) @G402
Type : Industrial Contributed Talk
Abstract : This contagion-effect model studies the impact of environmental factors on upward social mobility, where the educational environment is measured by the proportion of college-educated individuals, and social mobility is measured by a change in the proportion of people in different income classes. The dynamics of the educational environment are modeled using a modified version of the invasion/extinction ecological model of Richard Levins. In addition, the model adapts a version of a SIR-type model to capture the nonlinear effects of the influence of the environment. The educational environment influences the educational choices of poor people, becoming effective only after a threshold point is reached. The growth rate in influence is modeled using a monotonically increasing saturation function, which includes a delay parameter referred to as handling time, that measures the speed of influence generated by educated, successful individuals. The simulations indicate that poor individuals choose to become educated at a rate that primarily depends on the density of educated people acting as role models in the local environment. (This research has been peer-reviewed, accepted, and published by the Socio-Economic Planning Sciences Journal under the name "Neighborhood effects, college education, and social mobility," and all the authors are aware of the submission. This research is expected to contribute to studying the nonlinear dynamical effects of changing environments over socio-economic outcomes).
