The value of networks

Edward Glaeser highlights the importance of social interactions in a NYT article.

As an urban economist, I focus in my research on the advantages that cities create by connecting people to one another. Cities facilitate trade and learning and even friendship, by bringing people literally closer together. It is somewhat ironic that Rand chose Frank Lloyd Wright to be her model for lone wolf Roark. Wright is better seen as an example of the virtues of social learning, for he was part of a chain of connected Chicago architects — including William LeBaron Jenney, Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan — who learned from each other and collectively gave us, among other things, the skyscraper. The enduring strength of cities reflects the social nature of humanity which Professor Cacioppo so ably demonstrates.