New Directions in Inequality Research

The last twenty years or so have seen a marked increase in interest in inequality in both scholarly research and the public debate.

Enhanced data availability and computational power have continued to power an increase in the number of estimates and studies of inequality – across dimensions, countries, and time periods. Yet, what we don’t know continues to dwarf what we do, and agreement is elusive even on the basic facts. Because they draw from different data sources and use different methods and concepts, major international databases contain widely disparate estimates for income inequality for the same countries and years – and the same is true for wealth. There are large gaps between how people perceive changes in inequality and ‘objectively’ measured trends. More broadly, despite some recent progress in inter-disciplinary work, different social sciences continue to emphasize different meanings and aspects of inequality. At the same time, new challenges - from the rise of AI to the fall of democracy – raise new questions about how income and wealth distributions will be affected and, conversely, how they in turn will affect the political economy.

This panel will consider these and other questions facing researchers interested in inequality. Four leading experts will discuss what they view as the main priorities for future work in this area, before engaging in a wide-ranging conversation with the audience.

Meet our speakers and chair

Professor Facundo Alvaredo is a Professorial Research Fellow at LSE International Inequalities Institute. He is also Co-Director of the World Inequality Database and the World Inequality Lab. He obtained a PhD in Economics from the Paris School of Economics/École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and an undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires. His research is centred in the fields of public economics, the inequality of income and wealth, and the economic history of capitalism.

Steven N. Durlauf is a leading scholar in inequality research. He is the founding Director of the University of Chicago’s Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility. He is known for integrating sociological ideas into economic theories of inequality, poverty, and intergenerational mobility as well as for research that elucidates how statistical analysis can reveal the mechanisms underlying various dimensions of inequality.

Larry Kramer has been President and Vice Chancellor of LSE since April 2024. A constitutional scholar, university administrator, and philanthropic leader, he was previously the President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Dean of Stanford Law School.

Anne Phillips is a feminist political theorist whose work addresses a range of issues of inequality. Her publications include The Politics of Presence (1995), Which Equalities Matter? (1999), Multiculturalism without Culture (2007), The Politics of the Human (2015), and Unconditional Equals (2022). She is an Emeritus Professor at LSE, which she joined in 1999 as Director of the Gender Institute. She later moved to the Department of Government, where she held the Graham Wallas Chair in Political Science in the years prior to her retirement.

Armine Ishkanian is the Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme at the International Inequalities Institute and Professor in the Department of Social Policy at LSE. Her research focuses on the relationship between civil society, democracy, development, and social transformation.

More about this event

This event is part of 'The III at 10: New Directions in Inequality Research', a two-day conference celebrating the tenth anniversary of the International Inequalities Institute, taking place on 18-19 September 2025 at LSE.

The International Inequalities Institute at LSE brings together experts from many of the School's departments and centres to lead cutting-edge research focused on understanding why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges.

LSE holds a wide range of events, covering many of the most controversial issues of the day, and speakers at our events may express views that cause offence. The views expressed by speakers at LSE events do not reflect the position or views of the London School of Economics and Political Science.