Knowledge Exchange and Impact
The International Inequalities Institute’s research programmes, core researchers, faculty associates and visiting fellows connect with various non-academic audiences, research end-users and policymakers. Below are a selected number of examples given to highlight the III’s knowledge exchange and impact (KEI) activities.
Establishing an International Panel on Inequality
In 2025, at the request of President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Professor Joseph Stiglitz was asked to lead a committee of global experts to prepare a report on global inequality, to be presented to the G20. The final report outlined the drivers of extreme inequality, its consequences and its solutions. The report declared an inequality emergency that is on a par with the climate emergency and should be treated as such. Its main recommendation is for the establishment of a new International Panel on Inequality (IPI), which would play a similar role to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Following the launch of the report, the leaders of South Africa, Spain, Brazil, and Norway signaled their support for the initiative, and have joined Professor Stiglitz, Professor Jayati Ghosh and a number of other inequality experts in the creation of a Founding Committee for the establishment of the IPI. Momentum for the panel accelerated following high-level Founding Committee meetings – the first taking place in Geneva in March 2026, the second in Johannesburg in April 2026 and the third in Barcelona in July 2026. More than 700 economists and other leading inequality academics from around the world have also backed the proposal.
The III has been closely involved in the IPI meetings, with III Senior Policy Fellow Ana Caistor Arendar serving as a member of the secretariat, and several III staff inputting as members of the Consultative Council, including III Director Professor Francisco H. G. Ferreira, and research programme leaders Professor Mike Savage and Professor Naila Kabeer. This work is being supported by AFSEE through the newly launched Research Engagement and Impact Support (RIES) Fund, which also facilitates the inclusion of AFSEE Fellows into the IPI development process.
Beyond GDP international research and policy workshop
We co-hosted the Beyond GDP international research and policy workshop at LSE on 8th and 9th September 2026. This two-day workshop convened academics, statisticians, policymakers, and experts from international organisations to compare the leading methodological options for Beyond-GDP headline measurement and to clarify what each can offer for policy.
The workshop concluded with a policy panel chaired by UNU-WIDER Director Patricia Justino and a discussion of next steps, including the publication of a dedicated Special Issue of Oxford Development Studies.
The workshop was supported by UNU-WIDER, Keough School of Global Affairs, the LSE Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fund, Tulane University, Oxford Development Studies, and Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI).
Keynote lectures on social inequality at ECLAC
Professor Francisco H. G. Ferreira delivered a keynote lecture “Inherited Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean” at the Regional Seminar on Social Development organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). His presentation examined the persistence of inequalities between generations. This was published in an open-access volume alongside keynote lectures by Nicholas Barr, François Bourguignon, James Foster, and Nora Lustig. This event included participation from other III affiliates, including Kirsten Sehnbruch, Ellen Helsper, and James Foster.
During his visit to ECLAC, Professor Ferreira also met with Executive Secretary José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs to discuss emerging challenges related to inequality and potential areas of cooperation between ECLAC and the International Inequalities Institute. The meeting facilitated progress in establishing a framework for collaboration between the two institutions, aimed at promoting academic exchange, joint research, and the generation of evidence on inequality, social inclusion, and labour markets.
Exploring wealth inequality through storytelling
Researchers from the Wealth, Elites and Tax Justice research programme have collaborated with the AKO Storytelling Institute at the University of the Arts London (UAL) and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. A 2025 report by Sarah Kerr, Michael Vaughan and Annalena Oppel for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on wealth inequality framing formed the basis for the follow-up collaboration, which also includes former III researcher Jonathan Mijs.
At this “storytelling lab”, the programme’s research was translated into an intensive knowledge exchange process. It brought together academic researchers in wealth inequality and creatives working in entertainment to explore how stories shape the way we understand wealth and inequality, and how those narratives might be reimagined. Drawing on narrative framing research, this lab creates space for writers, filmmakers, journalists and other storytellers to engage directly with research insights and test how they can be applied in creative practice.
SOUTHMOD - simulating tax and benefit policies for development
SOUTHMOD is strengthening evidence-based tax and social protection policymaking across the Global South by equipping governments and national statistical agencies with advanced microsimulation tools and expertise.
To mark the 10th anniversary of SOUTHMOD, a series of events have been organised throughout 2026. A conference on Rethinking Fiscal Policy in Latin America was held in Quito, Ecuador, on 13 July, followed by a SOUTHMOD-LAC training course on the use of microsimulation models for policy analysis in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The anniversary programme will continue with a celebration event in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 14 September and an academic workshop at LSE on 6 November highlighting recent developments in fiscal policy research for countries in the Global South. UNU-WIDER has also produced a dedicated magazine marking 10 years of SOUTHMOD and showcasing the project's achievements in research, knowledge exchange and policy impact.
Alongside these anniversary activities, SOUTHMOD continues to build policymaking capacity through training in tax-benefit microsimulation. Training has been delivered to government officials and statistical agencies in Peru, Costa Rica, Bolivia and Ecuador.
Narratives on wealth inequality
The III has collaborated with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) to examine the role of framing in the politics of wealth inequality.
In Autumn 2024, the III and JRF ran focus groups to find out what the UK public thinks about wealth and wealth inequality, with support from New Economy Organisers’ Network, Future Narratives Lab, and Fairness Foundation. The results from these focus groups and a subsequent survey experiment which tested the effects of different frames on public opinion were published by JRF in June 2025 in the report 'Talking about wealth inequality'.
Following on from this work, Dr Sarah Kerr produced a 6-part podcast series funded by the JRF’s Storyteller’s Fund using ideas in Dr Sarah Kerr’s book Wealth, poverty and enduring inequality: Let’s talk wealtherty to explore some of the trends and issues in wealth inequality in the UK today. The aim of the podcast is to make a more accessible space for thinking and talking about wealth as a social problem, and specifically, for thinking about the effects of extreme private wealth ownership on social and environmental sustainability.
Changing the narrative on wealth inequality
In 2024, the III and JRF published a public-facing report, 'Changing the Narrative on Wealth Inequality', which summarises academic research on the framing of wealth inequality and offers provocations to support future collaboration between researchers and practitioners.
Workshops
A series of four workshops were held in early 2024. These workshops brought together representatives from social change organisations, including the Fairness Foundation, Women’s Budget Group, the Equality Trust, Tax Justice UK, and Patriotic Millionaires, alongside academics from seven institutions beyond LSE.
Collaboration between III researchers and OECD
On 22 September 2025, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched its new report ‘To Have and Have Not – How to Bridge the Gap in Opportunities’. This important study provides an in-depth analysis of inequality of opportunity across OECD countries and discusses policies that can reduce the gap between those born in relatively disadvantaged circumstances and those with broad access to opportunities.
This report builds on the methodology developed for the Global Estimates of Opportunity and Mobility (GEOM) database. Researchers at the III collaborated with the OECD by providing support in the estimation approach. The OECD adopted a machine-learning method to measure inequality of opportunity, inspired by earlier publications by Professor Francisco H.G. Ferreira, Dr Paolo Brunori, and Dr Pedro Salas-Rojo.
This report paves the way for future collaboration between the III and the OECD on the measurement of inherited inequalities.
Collaboration with the Runnymede Trust
The III and the Runnymede Trust published the report 'Why the UK racial wealth divide matters: a call for action'. This report explores how historic structural wealth barriers are hindering people of colour today. It demonstrates that the scale and nature of racial inequity in the ownership of wealth assets in the UK is a major issue of racial justice.
On Saturday 1 July 2023, the III collaborated with the Runnymede Trust and the LSE Department of Sociology to host Building Bridges: connecting stories and championing racial justice, a dynamic and inspiring day of knowledge exchange and collective action. Contributors included: Race & Health, Young Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Debt Justice, Nanny Solidarity Network, Voice of Domestic Workers, Just Fair, University of Leeds, Liberty, Netpol, No More Exclusions, Mentivity, and more.
Non-dom status abolished
As part of the 2024 Spring Budget, the former Chancellor announced that the non-domiciled (non-dom) tax regime will be phased out. From April 2025, people who move to the UK will not have to pay tax on money they earn overseas for the first four years. After that period, if they continue to live in the UK, they will pay the same tax as everyone else. This news followed influential research by Dr Arun Advani, Dr Andy Summers and David Burgherr showing that abolishing the regime could raise £3.2 billion a year for the UK economy. In 2023 the Labour Party pledged to abolish non-dom status, and the Conservative government was initially sceptical, but the compelling weight of evidence soon forced a change of view. The research was covered widely in major news outlets including The Guardian, iNews, Bloomberg, Independent, BBC News, The Telegraph, FT, and New Statesman.
Local economic development policy
Following the turbulent period in UK politics and economic policy in September and October 2022, the III’s Cities, Jobs and Economic Change research programme realised there was a greater opportunity to influence the debate on economic development policy. This started with the production of a briefing note on Investment Zones, which was a core part of Liz Truss’s growth agenda. III academics then presented their recommendations as an LSE public blog post which focused on providing evidence on what works, and how Investment Zones should be reformed. This led to significant interest from the Civil Service and in December 2022 a seminar was held with senior civil servants from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLHC) to discuss the Investment Zone agenda. Alongside this, a seminar series was developed and hosted at the Department for Business and Trade; these brought key LSE academics together with senior civil servants and other stakeholders to discuss areas of policy development. The team has also engaged with policymakers within the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, with a project member travelling to Manchester to meet about devolution policy in the UK.
Devolution and regional economic development policy
In 2023, the Cities, Jobs and Economic Change research programme collaborated with Lisa Nandy MP and her team to assist in the development of the Labour Party’s response to levelling up and devolution in the UK. The programme researchers wrote ten short, focused and evidenced briefing notes, one of which was focused on the importance of including places in economic development strategies. Nandy then used this briefing to ensure that Labour’s first mission – for the UK to be the highest growth country in the G7 – included reference to the distribution of this growth between places and people.
Alongside these short briefings, the programme’s researchers were asked to flesh out policy agendas for two areas of Nandy’s remit: regional economic growth and devolution. They based these on LSE research, the wider academic and public policy research base and discussions with over 30 experts. These papers were used to structure two workshops, which was organised in collaboration with University College London’s Policy Lab.
High-level UN appointments
The III continues to shape global policy debates through high-level international appointments. III Director Professor Francisco H. G. Ferreira began his term on the United Nations University Council. The Council oversees strategic priorities for the UN’s academic arm, which bridges research and policy across development, environment, peace, and governance. Meanwhile, Professor Naila Kabeer was appointed to the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP, which is developing new metrics to complement or replace GDP in measuring sustainable and inclusive development. She also joined the UN Women Leaders Network, which brings together influential figures committed to advancing gender equality worldwide.
Mike Savage elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Professor Mike Savage was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has honoured excellence and convened leaders from across disciplines and divides to examine new ideas, address issues of importance, and work together. The first members elected to the Academy in 1781 included Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. Professor Savage joins only eight other European sociologists who are Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. These include Gosta Esping-Anderson, Jurgen Habermas, and Anthony Giddens (the only other British sociologist so honoured).
Latin America and Caribbean Inequalities Review (LACIR)
The Latin America and Caribbean Inequalities Review (LACIR) programme achieved a major milestone with the publication of its comprehensive Supplement in Oxford Open Economics (March 2025). This ground-breaking study represents a four-year collaborative effort involving 74 scholars who contributed 27 peer-reviewed articles examining why Latin America remains the world's most unequal region despite decades of economic growth.
LACIR has translated this research into public engagement through a high-profile LSE event titled 'The most unequal region in the world: combatting inequality in Latin America' during the ESRC Festival of Social Science. LACIR also released a 12-episode podcast series with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) entitled ‘Voices in action: rethinking equality’ to reach a wider audience from the region. In 2026, a series of monthly blog posts on the LACIR supplement were published on the UCL Institute of the Americas Blog.
The results of the Review were also presented by Francisco H. G. Ferreira to the Annual Meetings of the Inter-American Development Bank in February 2024. In April 2024, LACIR panellists gathered at a synthesis symposium that took place in Mexico City. A public event was also held in Chile entitled ‘What do we know about inequality in Chile and Latin America? Evidence and public policies’.
Global Estimates of Opportunity and Mobility Database
The Global Estimates of Opportunity and Mobility (GEOM) database was officially launched during the ‘Equality of opportunity and intergenerational mobility: a global perspective’ conference that took place in Bari, Italy on the 6 and 7 June 2024. This database offers the most comprehensive set of estimates on Inequality of Opportunity available worldwide. To date, GEOM contains estimates for 72 countries, accounting for 67% of the world’s population and covering a time span as wide as 40 years in some cases. The database is now online and has attracted the interest of media and scholars around the globe, including mentions in a recent Fairness Foundation report in the UK, and in Il Sole 24 Ore, a leading Italian newspaper.
Why wealth inequality matters
Over the past decade, wealth inequality – driven by the private ownership of assets such as property, savings and investments – has increasingly been recognised as a major divisive force in the UK, and across the globe. A new report on ‘Why wealth inequality matters’ was published by Mike Savage, Mina Mahmoudzadeh, Elizabeth Mann, Michael Vaughan and Sacha Hilhorst, with the aim of bringing this inequality into proper view. The report shows how wealth operates to amplify socio-economic inequalities associated with gender, race and class, and also serves to erode democratic engagement and political trust. This report was launched at an event on 13 May 2024, which aimed to equip policymakers, journalists and civil society groups with key insights that could be used for campaigning work in the run up to the General Election. The event received wide coverage, such as journalist Polly Toynbee’s The Guardian column and an article by Fairness Foundation.
World Inequality Conference 2026
The III supported the third edition of the World Inequality Conference, hosted by the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics from 4- 6 June 2026. The conference marked the release of the Global Justice Report, which explores what a just distribution of socioeconomic and environmental resources could look like at the global level from 2026 to 2100 – both between and within countries – in a way that is compatible with planetary boundaries. Plenary sessions brought together leading voices from academia and civil society, and parallel sessions featured the latest academic work in the inequality research field.
There were several contributions by III staff and affiliates, including paper presentations by Francisco Ferreira, Louis Sirugue, Paolo Brunori, Annaelena Valentini, and Kristin Surak, and plenary sessions with Camille Landais and Branko Milanović.
Too Much Finance
The III hosted the international research and policy conference Too Much Finance in January 2026, in collaboration with the Tax Justice Network, Atlantic Fellows for Social & Economic Equity (AFSEE), the Balanced Economy Project, The Finance Innovation Lab and the Manchester School journal. Over two days, researchers and policymakers examined an insight that is well-established but still underappreciated in policy design: oversized financial sectors undermine economic performance and fuel inequality.
Research findings were interwoven throughout policy discussions, with keynote talks delivered by Thorsten Beck and Jayati Ghosh, and a dedicated roundtable on translating evidence into policy implications. A series of reflections from participants will be published to share key takeaways and to extend the conversation toward practical change. The event was also featured in The Guardian.
Beyond the divide: ECR conference on the political dimensions of place-based inequalities in urban and rural life
In April 2026, the Cities, Jobs and Economic Change research network held “Beyond the divide: ECR conference on the political dimensions of place-based inequalities in urban and rural life”. The conference was organised by PhD students Cèlia Estruch-Garcia and Charlotte Kuberka (LSE), with support from the International Inequalities Institute and the Department of Government.
The event brought together early-career researchers to explore how spatial inequalities shape political attitudes, representation and policy outcomes in urban and rural contexts. Participants included PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and other early-career academics from institutions across Europe. With several paper presentations and three keynote speakers, the conference provided a focused setting for interdisciplinary feedback and networking.