Is Brokerage Fleeting?

• In Event: 50605 - Networks, Inequality, and Social Integration

Abstract

We present results that probe whether occupancy of brokerage positions is necessarily fleeting, or whether it can instead be self-reinforced via the actor’s underlying endowment. The former, dominant framing suggests that individuals often leverage their agency to seek bridging ties or escape constraints by other brokers, either of which undermines the persistence of such informal structural advantage. Yet our tests based on a difference-in-differences framework show that a sudden reduction in some Korean popular music songwriters’ underlying endowment significantly diminishes their ability to either maintain or regain brokerage positions. This finding challenges the view that agency can sufficiently trump network constraints and indicates that brokerage may, in fact, remain “sticky” based on the actor's underlying endowment. More general lessons pertain to our understanding of social inequality by showing how informal networks—often viewed as flexible arenas for leveling the playing field—can nonetheless become self-reinforcing.

Authors

• Yonghoon Lee, Texas A&M University

• Minjae Kim, Yale University