Publications

Working Paper 7: Gendering the elites: an ethnographic approach to elite women's lives and the re-production of inequality

This paper argues that the process by which accumulated capital is socialized and passed down the generations of the 'super-rich' is gendered in nature, heavily reliant on women, and currently under-researched. The author addresses this gap ethnographically, focusing on the gendered labour that women perform to sustain and reproduce the dynaist projects of elite families. In light of this data, elite London emerges as a social space structured around strong hierarchies not just of class but also gender. The paper concludes that it is essential to understand more about the interplay of these two structuring principles within elite spaces, focusing on the 'invisible' labour performed by elite women.

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Working Paper 6: The measurement of health inequalities: does status matter?

This paper examines several status concepts to examine self-assessed health inequality using the sample of world countries contained in the World Health Survey.  The authors also perform correlation and regression analysis on the determinants of inequality estimates assuming an arbitrary cardinalisation.  The findings indicate major heterogeneity in health inequality estimates depending on the status approach, distributional-sensitivity parameter and measure adopted.  The authors find evidence that pure health inequalities vary with median health status alongside measures of government quality.

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Working Paper 5:  Top incomes and the gender divide

In the recent research on top incomes, there has been little discussion of gender.  How many of the top 1 and 10% are women?  A great deal is known about gender differentials in earnings, but how far does this carry over into the distribution of total incomes, bringing self-employment and capital income into the picture?  We investigate the gender divide at the top of the income distribution using tax record data for a sample of 8 countries with individual taxation.

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Working Paper 4: The challenge of measuring UK wealth inequality

The concentration of personal wealth is now receiving a great deal of attention as an important part of understanding rising income inequality. But how can we measure the wealth of the super-rich? This Working Paper looks at the challenges of understanding the assets of the top 1% and 0.1%. Download paper (pdf) / Read online edition

Working Paper 3: European Identity & Redistributive Preferences

Did the introduction of the Euro change public preferences for redistribution? This Working Paper examines how the emergence of a European identity impacts support for poverty reduction policies.

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Working Paper 2: Inequality: what can be done? by Tony Atkinson

Economic inequality has become centre stage in the political debate, but what the political leaders have not said is what they would do about it. In this Working Paper, Tony Atkinson seeks to show what could be done to reduce the extent of inequality if we are serious about that objective. Download paper (pdf) / Read online edition

Working Paper 1: An Interview with Thomas Piketty

III Co-director Mike Savage's interview focuses on Thomas Piketty’s future intellectual plans after Capital in the 21st Century. Includes insights into Piketty's views of new elites, social class, Bourdieu and Marx. Download paper (pdf) / Read online edition