Spatial Diffusion of Local Economic Shocks in Social Networks: Evidence from the US Fracking Boom

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Diemer, Andreas
• 署名单位: Stockholm University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/732300
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: labor-market outcomes; gas development; natural-gas; energy boom; EMPLOYMENT; CONSEQUENCES; impacts; migration; DYNAMICS; returns

摘要

I study the role of social networks in the propagation of economic shocks across space. Combining comprehensive data on US online friendships with extraction activity during the fracking boom, I show that exogenous changes in economic conditions in one area affect outcomes in socially proximate places, regardless of how far apart they are geographically. Social exposure to fracking generates a wage spillover amounting to one-third of every dollar of energy produced in a county's social network. This spillover decays slowly in space and is associated with a large mobility response. Diffusion mainly stems from the commuting of transient fracking workers.