The ties that bind us: Social networks and productivity in the factory

This study analyzes high frequency productivity data from Indian garment manufacturing, exploring how caste-based social networks affect individual and group productivity. With nearly 35,000 worker-days, a 1 percentage point increase in the same-caste workers boosts daily individual productivity by at least 0.09 points. Notably, the least efficient worker's productivity rises by almost 0.17 points with a 1 point increase in caste homogeneity. These findings, robust to unobservable factors, suggest production externalities driven by within-network peer effects as potential explanations.