Summary: We show that universities are social organizations parallel to the economy that provide a circuitry connecting financiers to other elites, despite growing complexity and fragmentation in finance.
Data
- University Board Member DataHub Data
- Forbes 400
- Prequin Private Equity Returns
- IPEDS Admissions and Test Scores
- IPEDS Institutional Characteristics
Abstract Financiers have regained preeminence among economic elites, accruing growing shares of income and wealth. Yet network analyses have shown a decline in the bank-based interlocks between corporate boards that were once thought to foster financier power and elite cohesion. We ask if social organizations parallel to the economy provide a circuitry that connects financiers to other elites, despite growing complexity and fragmentation in finance. We develop and test hypotheses that apply the theory to elite university social ties using original data on degree holding among the Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans and on the financial affiliations of all trustees on the boards of 60 top ranked U.S. universities.
Working paper available at https://cshe.berkeley.edu/publications/social-circuitry-high-finance-universities-and-intimate-ties-among-economic-elites