ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two distinctly different types of human networks. One is the network that is embedded within social capital, the ties and bonds that exist among people living in a particular community. The other is an explicitly spatial network of relationships among people that arises due to county-level commuting or migration flows. It focuses on the effect of social capital and other networks on poverty reduction, rather than employment or income growth. It also discusses empirical model and data along with maps of the key variables. Another large and growing literature examines the effects of social capital, at the county-level, on questions surrounding economic growth and other issues such as poverty reduction. The notion that ideas and information flows are critical to human well-being, economic growth and innovation along with creativity is at the heart of the so-called Social Physics, which Pentland describes as a relatively new science that is being built on the newly available big data sets.
