Perceptions of Inequality

The programme’s research agenda includes applied empirical work to advance our understanding of perceptions of inequality and their potential explanations. This is based on indicators of individual attitudes and behaviours, such as interpersonal trust, social identity, ideology, poverty aversion, social cues, reference points, and the fear of being last.

The programme’s members study, for example, the sensitivity of perceptions and attitudes toward inequality to the presence or absence of absolute poverty and deprivation as well as socio-economic mobility – and who exactly is affected by these.

Moreover, of particular interest are well-documented, but less well-explained, gender differences in inequality aversion, including gender effects on risk perceptions and attitudes, trust and pro-social behaviours, locus of control, and time preferences, as well as other behavioural determinants (empathy, guilt, shame, etc). It is thereby also committed to an explicitly intersectional approach that considers additional self-identified reference groups.

The programme also makes methodological contributions that help compare and identify the best techniques to elicit individual and collective perceptions, preferences, and attitudes - spanning experimental methods from psychology, economics, and behavioural science, as well as the use of quantitative and qualitative surveys, and observational techniques from the social sciences.

Narratives of inequality
Project team: Joan Costa-i-Font, Frank Cowell, Jakob Dirksen, Aaron Bermejo Quintero, Cecilia Saavedra

This project examines global and country specific narratives of inequality. We analyse narratives across different dimensions of inequality, such as income, wealth, and health, with a special focus on gendered discourse. By tracking online search interest in terms related to inequality across different countries and scraping data from news articles, social media, and forums, we seek to better understand how inequality is perceived, discussed, and framed worldwide.

Inequality perceptions, circumstances, and information
Project team: Joan Costa-i-Font, Frank Cowell, Jakob Dirksen

This project studies the role of personal circumstances and exposure to or information about inequality in shaping (mis)perceptions and normative views promises insights into the mechanisms of how (mis)perceptions and ill-informed anti-egalitarian attitudes come about – and how they can be corrected.

• Professor Frank Cowell, Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, LSE
• Professor Joan Costa-Font, Professor of Health Economics, Department of Health Policy, LSE
• Jakob Dirksen, Analysing and Challenging Inequalities Scholar, International Inequalities Institute, Department of Social Policy, and CASE/STICERD, LSE & Research and Policy Officer, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, Department of International Development, University of Oxford

Core members

• Dr Miqdad Asaria, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy, LSE
• Professor Conchita d’Ambrosio, Professor of Economics, Université du Luxembourg
• Dr Tania Burchardt, Associate Professor, Department of Social Policy, Associate Director, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion and Deputy Director of STICERD, LSE
• Dr Liema Davidovitz, Senior Lecturer, Ruppin Institute
• Professor Koen Decancq, Professor, University of Antwerp and Research Fellow, CPNSS, LSE
• Dr Matteo Galizzi, Associate Professor of Behavioural Science, Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, LSE
• Dr H. Xavier Jara, Assistant Professorial Research Fellow, International Inequalities Institute
• Professor Philippe Van Kerm, Professor of Social Inequality and Social Policy, Department of Social Sciences, University of Luxembourg
• Professor Nora Lustig, Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics and Director of the Commitment to Equity Institute, Tulane University
• Professor Franoçis Maniquet, Professor of Economics, UC Louvain and Senior Research Scientist, Luxembourg Institute for Socio-Economic Research
• Professor Javier Olivera, Professor of Economics, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Peru, National Bank of Belgium, and Luxembourg Institute for Socio-Economic Research
• Dr Melissa Sands, Assistant Professor of Politics and Data Science, Department of Government, LSE
• Professor Erik Schokkaert, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven
• Dr Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington, Associate Professor of Social Psychology, Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, LSE
• Dr Denisa Sologon, Senior Research Scientist, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research
• Dr Alain Trannoy, Research Director, EHESS, Aix-Marseille Université

PhD affiliates

• Chloé de Meulenaer, PhD Student, Department of Economics, LSE
• James Zuo, PhD Student, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Research assistants

• Sara Alassaf
• Aaron Bermejo Quintero
• Cecilia Saavedra

Special Issues

Forthcoming Special Issue in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

Special Issue: Inequality perceptions and fairness judgments (607–975); Book review (977–987), Journal of Economic Inequality.

Working Papers

Hünewaldt, V. & Weinig, M. (2026). Inflation narratives, political polarization and policy support. (III Working Papers 175). International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Hünewaldt, V. & Brunori, P. (2025). Misperceiving inequality and its roots: cross-country evidence from Europe. (III Working Paper 156). International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Olivera, J., Schokkaert, E. & van Kerm, P. (2025). The role of information in eliciting support for inheritance taxation. (III Working Paper 157). International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Olivera, Javier, Breunig, Christian, Broderstad, Troy, Dumont, Patrick and Sterba, Maj-Britt (2025) Preferences for redistribution policies among politicians and citizens. III Working Paper (152). International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

Costa-Font, Joan and Cowell, Frank (2024) Specific egalitarianism? Inequality aversion across domains. III Working Paper (142). International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Blogs

Antonini, Marcello and Costa-Font, Joan (2026) Individual ill health weakens support for a fairer healthcare system. LSE Inequalities Blog.

Dirksen, Jakob (2025) Why the G20 Should Harmonise Efforts to Measure Poverty and Well-Being Better. LSE Inequalities Blog, 18 November 2025.

Chong, Queena, Costa-Font, Joan, Cowell, Frank and Dirksen, Jakob (2024) Did inequality shape the Brexit vote? LSE Inequalities Blog.

Articles

Almås, Ingvild, Auffhammer, Maximilian, Bold, Tessa, Bolliger, Ian, Dembo, Aluma, Hsiang, Solomon M., Kitamura, Shuhei, Miguel, Edward and Pickmans, Robert (2025) Destructive Behaviour, Judgement and Economic Decision-Making Under Thermal Stress. The Economic Journal, 135. 2483–2508. https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueae116.

Almås, Ingvild, Bonn, Caroline, Cappelen, Alexander W., Cappelen, Cornelius and Tungodden, Bertil (2025) Inequality Acceptance in China. Fairness Views, Inequality Beliefs, and Policy Attitudes in a Socialist Market Economy. Journal of Economic Inequality, 23. 623–636.

Almås, Ingvild, Hufe, Paul and Weishaar, Daniel (2025) Experimental Evidence on Attitudes Toward Inequality and Fairness. Annual Review of Economics, 17.

Anaya-Montes, Misael, Grasic, Katja, Lomas, James, Anselmi, Laura, Asaria, Miqdad, Kypridemos, Christodoulos, Barr, Benjamin, Sutton, Matthew, Bentley, Chris and Cookson, Richard (2025) Do the Poor Gain More? The Impact of Secondary Care Expenditure on Health Inequality. Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, 24. 309–324.

Antonini, Marcello and Costa-Font, Joan (2025) Healthy Self-Interest? Health-Dependent Preferences for Fairer Health Care. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 240. 107337.

Bargain, Olivier, Jara, H. Xavier and Rivera, David (2025) Social Gaps, Perceived Inequality and Protests. World Development, 199. 107248.

Bérard, Guillaume and Trannoy, Alain (2025) Housing Policy Impacts on Poverty and Inequality in Europe. Review of Income and Wealth, 71 (3). e70028.

Bollen, Pieter, Higton, Joshua and Sands, Melissa (2025) Nationally Representative, Locally Misaligned. The Biases of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Neighborhood Perception. Political Analysis.

Burchardt, Tania (2025) Determinants of the Social Risk of Caring. International Journal of Care and Caring, 9 (3). 521–538.

Burchardt, Tania (2025) Reframing Long-Term Care Policy. From Services to Social Determinants. Journal of Social Policy. 1–22.

Cabeza Martínez, Begoña and Decancq, Koen (2025) How Information About Effort and Luck Shapes Altruism of Social Preferences. A Survey Experiment. Journal of Economic Inequality, 23 (3). 695–716. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-025-09699-0.

Callen, Michael, Fajardo-Steinhäuser, Mónica, Findley, Michael G. and Ghani, Tarek (2025) Can Digital Aid Deliver During Humanitarian Crises? Management Science, 71 (11). 9730–9748.

Chancel, Lucas and Rehm, Yannick (2025) Accounting for the Carbon Footprint of Capital Ownership Advances the Understanding of Emission Inequality. Climatic Change, 178 (11). 211.

Chanel, Olivier, Luchini, Stéphane, Teschl, Miriam and Trannoy, Alain (2025) Preferences for Redistributive Justice. A Participatory-Democracy Experiment. Journal of Economic Inequality, 23 (3). 717–747.

Cheesman, Rachel, Borgen, Nicolai, Sandsør, Ann Mari J., and Hufe, Paul (2025) The Genetic Lottery Goes to School. Better Schools Compensate for the Effects of Students’ Genetic Differences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122 (43). e2511715122.

Chrisendo, Dito, Niva, Ville, Hoffmann, Roman, Masoumzadeh Sayyar, Saman, Rocha, Juan, Sandström, Viliina and Kummu, Matti (2025) Rising Income Inequality Across Half of Global Population and Socioecological Implications. Nature Sustainability. 1–13.

Cintron, Chelsea, Dauphinais, Madolyn Rose, Du, Xinyi, Tabackman, Alexa, Lenart, Andrew, Laliberte, Ashley, Dirksen, Jakob and Sinha, Pranay (2025) Enriching Tuberculosis Research by Measuring Poverty Better. A Perspective. BMC Global and Public Health, 3 (1).

Clark, Andrew E., d’Ambrosio, Conchita and Lepinteur, Anthony (2025) Unsettled. Job Insecurity Reduces Homeownership. Scandinavian Journal of Economics.

Connolly, Gemma, Costa-Font, Joan and Srivastava, Divya (2025) Did COVID-19 Reduce the Digital Divide? A Systematic Review. Health Policy and Technology, 14 (2). 100979.

Cook, Sarah and Rani, Uma (2025) Platform Work in Developing Economies. Can Digitalisation Drive Structural Transformation? Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 68 (2). 395–416.

Costa-Font, Joan and Cowell, Frank (2025) An Unconsidered Leave? Inequality Aversion and the Brexit Referendum. European Journal of Political Economy, 86. 102648.

Costa-Font, Joan and Cowell, Frank (2025) Specific Egalitarianism? Inequality Aversion Across Domains. Journal of Economic Inequality, 23 (3). 749–775.

Costa-Font, Joan and Raut, Nilesh (2025) Long-Term Care Partnership Effects on Medicaid and Private Insurance. Health Economics, 34 (6). 1171–1187.

Costa-Font, Joan and Rodriguez-Monguio, Rosa (2025) Advancing Healthcare Decision-Making for the Common Good. A Tribute to Professor Rovira Forns. Health Economics, Policy and Law, 20 (3). 225–232.

Costa-Font, Joan and Sato, Azusa (2025) Cultural Persistence and the ‘Herbal Medicine Paradox’. Evidence From European Data. Journal of Health Psychology, 30 (2). 171–185.

Costa-Font, Joan and Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina (2025) The Hidden Value of Adult Informal Care in Europe. Health Economics, 34 (4). 791–812.

Costa-Font, Joan, Nicińska, Anna and Rossello-Roig, Melcior (2025) Equal Before Luck? Well-Being Consequences of Personal Deprivation and Transition. Social Science & Medicine, 376. 117975.

Costa-Font, Joan, Nicińska, Anna and Rossello-Roig, Melcior (2025) The Effects on Inequality and Mobility of Exposure to Soviet Communism in Eastern Europe. Journal of Comparative Economics, 54 (1). 40–65.

Costa-Font, Joan, Salmasi, Luca and Zaccagni, Sarah (2025) More Than a Ban on Smoking? Behavioural Spillovers of Smoking Bans in the Workplace. Economics & Human Biology, 58. 101512.

Costa-Font, Joan, Miler-Raicu, G., Arbelo, E., Casado-Arroyo, R., Sami, A. and others (2025) Behavioural Mechanisms in the Underuse of Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy in Heart Failure. A Pilot Survey on Incentive Perceptions Among Referring Cardiologists. Health Economics Review.

Cowell, Frank and Van de gaer, Dirk (2025) Condorcet Was Wrong, Pareto Was Right. Families, Inheritance and Inequality. Journal of Public Economic Theory, 27 (2). e70022.

Cowell, Frank, Schokkaert, Erik and Tarroux, Benoît (2025) Measuring Distributional Preferences. Opportunities and Challenges. Journal of Economic Inequality, 23 (3). 607–622. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-025-09704-6.

D’Aguanno, Maria Chiara, Guio, Anne-Catherine and Van Kerm, Philippe (2025) Cross-Country Evidence on the Individual Dynamics of In-Work Poverty in the EU. Economic Systems. 101360.

Dang, Hai-Anh, Dhongde, Shatakshee, Do, Minh Ngoc, Nguyen, Cuong Viet and Pimhidzai, Obert (2025) Rapid Economic Growth but Rising Poverty Segregation. Will Vietnam Meet the SDGs for Equitable Development? Review of Development Economics, 29 (4). 2063–2075.

Decancq, Koen, Olivera, Javier and Schokkaert, Erik (2025) Ethnic Differences and Preference Heterogeneity. Assessing Social Pensions in Peru. Development Studies Research, 12 (1). 2443233.

Deza, María Cecilia, Dondo, Mariana, Jara, H. Xavier, Rodríguez, David and Torres, Javier (2025) The Role of Tax-Benefit Systems in Reducing the Gender Income Gap in Latin America. Social Policy & Administration.

Diessner, Sebastian, Durazzi, Niccolo, Filetti, Federico, Hope, David, Kleider, Hanna and Tonelli, Simone (2025) The Transition to the Knowledge Economy in Advanced Capitalist Democracies. A New Index for Comparative Research. Socio-Economic Review, 23 (4). 2223–2252.

Eftedal, Nikolai H., Kleppestø, Thomas H., Czajkowski, Nikolai O., Eilertsen, Espen M., Røysamb, Espen, Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer and others (2025) The Relationship Between Educational Attainment and Right-Wing Authoritarianism. A Discordant Twin Study. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Elson, Diane and Powell, Jeff (2025) Engendering Monetary Policy. Feminist Economics.

Ferreira, Francisco H. G., Moramarco, Domenico and Peragine, Vito (2025) Economic Development and Inequality of Opportunity. Kuznets Meets the Great Gatsby? Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.

Ferreira, João V., Hanaki, Nobuyuki, Le Lec, Fabrice, Schokkaert, Erik and Tarroux, Benoît (2025) Freedom Counts. Cross-Country Empirical Evidence. European Economic Review, 176. 105022.

Fleurbaey, Marc, Lambert, Peter, Moramarco, Domenico and Peragine, Vito (2025) Inequality Decomposition Analysis, the Lorenz Curve and the Gini Coefficient. Social Choice and Welfare. 1–23.

Friedman, Sam, Savage, Mike and Spoerhase, Carlos (2025) Beyond the ‘Scholarship Boy’ Paradigm. Autosociobiography and Social Mobility. European Journal of Cultural Studies.

Galizzi, Matteo M., Wang, Jingxuan, Wei, Yuchen, Kwan, Hoi Shan, Fung, Hong, Yung, Tony K. C. and others (2025) Perceptions, Willingness-to-Pay, and Associated Socio-Demographics of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxation in an Affluent Asian Setting. Appetite, 214.

Gentile, Niccolò, Bia, Michela, Clark, Andrew E., d’Ambrosio, Conchita and Tkatchenko, Alexandre (2025) What Makes a Satisfying Life? Prediction and Interpretation With Machine-Learning Algorithms. Review of Income and Wealth, 71 (2). e70003.

Gil-Hernández, Carlos J., Salas-Rojo, Pedro, Vidal, Guillem and Villani, Davide (2025) Wealth and Income Stratification by Social Class in Five European Countries. Social Indicators Research, 178. 817–841.

González-Leonardo, Miguel, Rowe, Francisco, Potančoková, Michaela and Goujon, Anne (2025) Assessing the Differentiated Impacts of COVID-19 on the Immigration Flows to Europe. International Migration Review, 59 (4). 2258–2273.

Guo, Li, Cheng, Zhiming, Tani, Massimiliano, Cook, Sarah, Zhao, Jing and Chen, Xiaobo (2025) Air Pollution and Entrepreneurship. China Economic Review, 89. 102327.

Hasenberger, Hannah (2025) Challenging the ‘Fictions of Financialisation’. A Commentary on Explanation in Financial Geography. Finance and Space, 2 (1). 332–337.

Hepburn, Cameron, Ives, Michael C., Loni, Silvia, Mealy, Penny, Barbrook-Johnson, Peter, Farmer, J. Doyne, Stern, Nicholas and Stiglitz, Joseph (2025) Economic Models and Frameworks to Guide Climate Policy. Oxford Review of Economic Policy.

Ho, Arnold K., Kteily, Nour S., Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer and Thomsen, Lotte (2025) Social Dominance Orientation. The Motivational Basis of Intergroup Inequality. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 72. 128–208.

Holuka, Cyrielle, Melacca, A., Menta, Giorgia, d’Ambrosio, Conchita, Morano, S., Štefulj, J. and others (2025) Maternal Birth Experience and DNA Methylation. Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, 16. e21.

Holuka, Cyrielle, Menta, Giorgia, Caro, Juan C., Vögele, Claus, d’Ambrosio, Conchita and Turner, Jonathan D. (2025) Developmental Epigenomic Effects of Maternal Financial Problems. Development and Psychopathology, 37 (2). 1004–1017.

Hope, David, Limberg, Julian and Steinebach, Yannis (2025) Unequal Treatment Perceptions and Rural Backlashes Against Carbon Taxation. European Journal of Political Research. 1–21.

Hufe, Paul, Kobus, Martyna, Peichl, Andreas and Schüle, Philipp (2025) Multidimensional Equality of Opportunity in the United States. European Economic Review, 180. 105162.

Immervoll, Herwig, Linden, Jules, O’Donoghue, Cathal and Sologon, Denisa M. (2025) Carbon Pricing and Household Burdens in Newly Affluent Countries. An Application to Lithuania. Energy Policy, 206. 114783.

Iradukunda, Roger, Rowe, Francisco and Pietrostefani, Elisabetta (2025) Estimating Internal Displacement in Ukraine From High-Frequency GPS Mobile Phone Data. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12 (1). 1863.

Jara, H. Xavier, Montesdeoca, Lourdes, Colmenarez, María Gabriela and Moreno, Lorena (2025) Two Decades of Tax-Benefit Reforms in Ecuador. How Much Have They Contributed to Poverty and Inequality Reduction? World Development, 190. 106976.

Jara, H. Xavier, Rodríguez, David, Collado, Diego, Torres, Javier, Mideros, Andrés, Montesdeoca, Lourdes, Avellaneda, Andrés, Chang, Rodrigo and Vanegas, Omar (2025) Assessing the Role of Tax-Benefit Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Evidence From the Andean Region. Review of Development Economics, 29 (1). 226–246.

Jaravel, Xavier, Aghion, Philippe, Bunel, Simon, Mikaelsen, Kristoffer S., Roulet, Adrien and Søgaard, Jakob E. (2025) How Different Uses of AI Shape Labor Demand. Evidence From France. AEA Papers and Proceedings.

Kachanoff, Frank J., Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer, Ho, Arnold K., Richeson, Jennifer and Kteily, Nour S. (2025) Beliefs About What Disadvantaged Groups Would Do With Power Shape Advantaged Groups’ (Un)Willingness to Relinquish It. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 128 (5). 1103–1141.

Klotz, Michelle, Krpan, Dario, Lohmann, Paul M., Galizzi, Matteo M. and Reisch, Lucia A. (2025) Stop, Think, Buy. An Online Randomised Controlled Experiment Comparing the Effects of Traffic-Light Nutritional Labelling and Price Promotion on Steering Consumer Food Choice. Appetite, 211.

Kornadt, Anna E., Bowen, Catherine E., Lepinteur, Anthony, Ratti, Luca, Vögele, Claus and d’Ambrosio, Conchita (2025) Working From Home and Well-Being During the Pandemic and Beyond. A Longitudinal Analysis in Five Countries. BMC Public Health, 25. 1183.

Kornadt, Anna E., Wettstein, Markus, Lepinteur, Anthony, Vögele, Claus and d’Ambrosio, Conchita (2025) Associations of Subjective Age Trajectories With Loneliness and Stress Across Adulthood. PLoS ONE, 20 (4). e0320673.

Lepinteur, Anthony, Menta, Giorgia and Waltl, Sebastian R. (2025) Equal Price for Equal Place? Demand-Driven Racial Discrimination in the Housing Market. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 111. 104089.

Luptakova, Veronika, Galizzi, Matteo M., Krpan, Dario and Voorhoeve, Alex (2025) Do People Better Recognize Inconsistencies in Others’ Moral Judgments Than Their Own? If So, Why? Philosophical Psychology.

Lustig, Nora, Martinez-Pabon, Valentina and Pessino, Carola (2025) Fiscal Policy, Income Redistribution, and Poverty Reduction in Latin America. Oxford Open Economics, 4 (Supplement_1). i426–i446.

Machin, Stephen (2025) Real Wage and Productivity Stagnation. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 41 (1). 105–119.

Machin, Stephen and Sandi, Marta (2025) Crime and Education. Annual Review of Economics, 17.

Machin, Stephen, McNally, Sandra, Terrier, Camille and Ventura, Gabriela (2025) Closing the Gap Between Vocational and General Education? Evidence From University Technical Colleges in England. Journal of Human Resources.

Maniquet, François and Moramarco, Domenico (2025) Relative Multi-Dimensional Poverty Measurement and Deaton’s Distance Function. Journal of Economic Inequality. 1–12.

McGuire, Alistair, Costa-Font, Joan and Thomas, Ranita (2025) Towards Resilient and Sustainable Universal Healthcare Coverage.

Merrell, Wilson, Fan, Lei, Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer and Thomsen, Lotte (2025) Resource Possession in the Mind’s Eye. Ideological Convergence and Divergence in the Perceptions of Poor People. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Morelli, Salvatore, Nolan, Brian, Palomino, Juan C. and Van Kerm, Philippe (2025) The Influence of Inheritances on Wealth Inequality in Rich Countries. Journal of Public Economics, 247. 105398.

Naidin, Maria D., Waltl, Sebastian R. and Ziegelmeyer, Michael H. (2025) Objective Housing Sales and Rent Prices in Representative Household Surveys. Implications for Wealth, Inequality, Housing Market, and Affordability Statistics. Review of Income and Wealth, 71 (1). e12692.

Neidhöfer, Guido (2025) Review. The Escape from Poverty: Breaking the Vicious Cycles Perpetuating Disadvantage, by Olivier De Schutter, Hugh Frazer, Anne-Catherine Guio and Eric Marlier. Journal of Economic Inequality, 23. 977–979.

Olivera, Javier (2025) Ageing Unequally in Latin America. Journal of Economic Inequality.

Olivera, Javier and Valderrama, José A. (2025) Early Pension Withdrawals and Their Uneven Long-Term Effects in Peru. International Social Security Review, 78 (4). 31–52.

Ooghe, Erwin, Schokkaert, Erik and Serruys, Hannes (2025) Fairness Gaps for Earnings Tax Design. Journal of Political Economy: Microeconomics, 3 (1). 25–58.

Oparina, Ekaterina, Kaiser, Caspar, Gentile, Niccolò, Tkatchenko, Alexandre, Clark, Andrew E., De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel, d’Ambrosio, Conchita and others (2025) Machine Learning in the Prediction of Human Wellbeing. Scientific Reports, 15 (1). 1632.

Palmisano, Flavio (2025) Economic Crimes and Trust Toward Political Institutions. Evidence From Online Fraud Victimization and Related Policy Interventions in Italy. Journal of Economic Psychology, 111.

Palmisano, Flavio, Moramarco, Domenico and Peragine, Vito (2025) Inequality of Opportunity in a Multiperiod Framework. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics.

Pessino, Carola, Rasteletti, Alejandro, Artana, Daniel and Lustig, Nora (2025) Distributional Effects of Taxation in Latin America. Oxford Open Economics, 4 (Supplement_1). i447–i480.

Platt, Lucinda (2025) Book Review of Deaton, Angus, Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality. Journal of Economic Inequality, 23. 985–987.

Platt, Lucinda and Zuccotti, Carolina V. (2025) Who Migrates and Where? Insights into Global Migrant Selectivity Through South American Migration. Revista Internacional de Sociología, 83 (4). e284.

Pollicino, Daniele, Zamzow, Heidi, Shreedhar, Ganga, Galizzi, Matteo M., Naci, Huseyin and Freitag, Patricia (2025) Can Social Norms Promote Sustainable Food Consumption? A Systematic Review. Social Influence, 20 (1).

Rudisill, Caroline, Linvill, K., Chupak, A., Costa-Font, Joan, Harrison, S., Hung, P. and Li, X. (2025) Trust or Money? Barriers to Health and Healthcare Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic. PLoS ONE, 20 (9). e0331600.

Salas-Rojo, Pedro, Jordá, Vicente and Brunori, Paolo (2025) Polarization of Opportunity. Economics Letters, 253. 112386.

Sehnbruch, Kirsten, Prieto, Jorge and Carranza, Rodrigo (2025) Job Loss and Earnings Inequality. Distributional Effects From Re-employment in Chile. Economic Analysis and Policy, 86. 1020–1036.

Sehnbruch, Kirsten, Prieto, Jorge and Vidal, Diego (2025) Multi-Dimensional Quality of Employment (QoE) Dynamics. Longitudinal Insights From Chile, 2004–2020. Social Science Research, 131. 103206.

Schokkaert, Erik (2025) Pensions. More Than Collective Risk Pooling? Economics & Philosophy, 41 (1). 219–223.

Sinha Roy, Sanchari and van der Weide, Roy (2025) Estimating Poverty for India After 2011 Using Private-Sector Survey Data. Journal of Development Economics, 172. 103386.

Smith, Kate and Miller, Helen (2025) The Equity and Efficiency Effects of Capital Tax Reform. Working Paper, January 2025.

Smith, Kate, O’Connell, Martin and Levell, Peter (2025) The Welfare Effects of Price Shocks and Household Relief Packages. Evidence From an Energy Crisis. Working Paper, January 2025.

Sologon, Denisa M., O’Donoghue, Cathal, Kyzyma, Iryna, Loughrey, Jason and Linden, Jules (2025) Distributional Impact of Soaring Prices in Europe. A Cross-National Decomposition of Inflation’s Regressivity and Progressivity. Review of Income and Wealth, 71 (2). e70010.

Stacy, Benjamin, Kitzmüller, Lukas, Wang, Xiaoxiao, Mahler, Daniel G. and Serajuddin, Umar (2025) Data Use in Social Science and Medical Articles Around the World. PNAS Nexus, 4 (6). pgaf196.

Stern, Nicholas, Romani, Mattia, Pierfederici, Riccardo, Braun, Max, Barraclough, David, Lingeswaran, Sutharsan, Weirich-Benet, Eric and Niemann, Nina (2025) Green and Intelligent. The Role of AI in the Climate Transition. npj Climate Action, 4. 56.

Subioli, Federica and Raitano, Michele (2025) When Mobility Matters. A Look at Earnings Dynamics Across Italian Generations. Economica, 92 (368). 1168–1210.

Sutton, K., Armes, J., Forbes, L., Mohamed, A., Shafi, S., Mustafa, R., Shah, S., Asaria, Miqdad and others (2025) A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of a Novel Targeted Health Messaging Intervention to Promote COVID-19 Protective Behaviours and Vaccination Among Black and South Asian Communities. Clinical Medicine, 25 (2). 100285.

Venkatesh, Sumit, Skarda, Ieva, Villadsen, Aase, Asaria, Miqdad, Boehnke, Jan R., Brennan, Alan and others (2025) LifeSim Childhood. Extrapolating Intervention Effects and Public Cost Savings From Birth to Adolescence in the UK. International Journal of Microsimulation.

Vaughan, Matthew and Kerr, Scott (2025) Visual Representations of Wealth Inequality in Political Communication. Visual Communication.

Vaughan, Matthew and Schieferdecker, Daniel (2025) Seeing a New Type of Economic Inequality Discourse. Inequality as Spectacle in the ‘Billionaire Space Race’. International Journal of Communication.

Upcoming events

39th IARIW General Conference
24 - 28 August 2026. Brussels, Belgium.

This conference will cover the following themes: the definition, measurement, and analysis of national income and wealth; the distribution of income and wealth, and poverty; the development of systems of economic and social accounting and their use for economic policy; international comparisons; and other related economic and statistical matters.

The Perceptions of Inequality research programme will be presenting a paper as part of the Narratives of Inequality project.

Past events

High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP seminar
12 January 2026

The Perceptions of Inequality research programme organised an informal seminar on behalf of the UN High Level Expert group (HLEG). Nora Lustig (co-chair of the HLEG and academic core member of the Perceptions Programme), and Naila Kabeer (Director of the Gender and Well-Being Economy Programme and member of the HLEG), and Carol Graham (Chief Editor of the HLEG) presented the current progress of the HLEG. Invited members gave comments, including III Director Francisco Ferreira and programme members Erik Schokkaert and Conchita D'Ambrosio. This was followed by continued correspondence and meetings.

2nd Welfare & Policy Conference
Organised by the Society for Research on Welfare and Policy (WAP), and the Bordeaux School of Economics
5 May 2025 - 6 May 2025

Featuring a thematic session on Perceptions of Inequality chaired by Professor Frank Cowell and Jakob Dirksen.

International Research Workshop on Perceptions of Inequality
20 May 2025

The Perceptions of Inequality Research Programme at the International Inequalities Institute at LSE held an in-person workshop on perceptions of inequality on 20 May 2025. This workshop brought together international researcher working on perceptions of inequality and related issues for presentations and discussions of ongoing research, as well as the continuation or start of new research collaborations.

For further information on the workshop programme, see here.

Equality of Opportunity with Quadratic Social Welfare Functions
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute
30 April 2025

Speaker: Michele Bernasconi

Derived from Epstein and Segal (1992), quadratic social welfare functions address classical criticisms to Harsanyi’s utilitarianism and incorporate concerns for ex ante fairness. The original axiomatization focuses on the social decision to allocate an indivisible good among equally deserving individuals. We show how the model extends naturally in an income distribution setting, where social preference seeks to account for equality in the distribution of opportunities between social types.

The Political Consequences of Exposure to Inequality on Social Media: A Randomized Field Experiment
5 March 2025

Speaker: Dr Melissa Sands, Assistant Professor of Politics and Data Science, Department of Government, LSE

People experience economic inequality through social media. Services like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, offer users a curated window into the lives of the wealthy. The effects of this digital exposure to inequality on political behaviour are not yet understood. To fill this gap we use a placebo-controlled field experiment that randomly assigns college students to follow the Instagram account of a fellow student enjoying a luxury Spring Break vacation.

Freedom counts: cross-country empirical evidence on the ranking of opportunity sets
22 October 2024

Speaker: Professor Erik Schokkaert, Professor Emeritus of Welfare and Health Economics, KULeuven

Using a novel survey-based research design, we investigate if people reveal that freedom has intrinsic value and we classify subjects according to the theoretical rules they implicitly employ to rank opportunity sets. We do this for a total of 4902 participants across 10 distinct countries. Opportunity sets in the survey consist of a number of hospitals with varying characteristics.

Watch the recording

Inequality Decomposition with Machine Learning Methods
III Seminar co-organised with the Opportunity, Mobility, and intergenerational Transmission of Wealth Research Programme
Thursday 28 March 2024

Speaker: Emmanuel Flachaire, Professor Aix-Marseille Université, Faculté d'économie et de gestion (FEG)

PhD & ECR Visiting Programme

The Perceptions of Inequality Research Programme at the International Inequalities Institute (III) of the London School of Economics and Political Science invites research students and early career researchers from other universities to spend up to one academic term at the School.

This visiting period aims to assist doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in their own research, granting them temporary access to the facilities and supervision offered by the III as well as establishing a network of academic contacts within the field of Inequality Studies.

The Perceptions of Inequality Research Programme is led by Professor Frank Cowell (Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Programme), Professor Joan Costa-i-Font (Professor of Health Economics and Co-Director of the Programme), and Jakob Dirksen (Analysing and Challenging Inequalities Scholar at the III and Principal Researcher of the Programme), and involves many academic core members with shared research interests and expertise around perceptions of inequality.

Prospective Visiting Researchers are asked to submit an email to j.t.dirksen@lse.ac.uk containing the following items:

1. CV.

2. Any relevant completion certificates or transcripts for undergraduate or graduate degrees previously obtained.

3. A brief statement of purpose for the research visit, not to exceed 1,200 words. This should include the topic of work to be undertaken while at the III and specify the period proposed for the visit (please take into account the LSE’s term dates).

4. Two academic reference letters.

5. A sample of written work (e.g. a publication, working paper, or thesis chapter).

6. Proposed dates of stay.

The PoI Programme members will regularly review submissions and may invite up to 2 candidates per academic term, depending on fit and availability.

Successful candidates may be eligible to receive up to £500 to cover travel costs and (where applicable) financial support to cover tuition fees.

Additional information for current PhD candidates

For current PhD candidates, visiting the III is conditional on being accepted as Visiting Research Students by the Social Policy Department at LSE. Although the visiting programme at the Social Policy Department is a distinct process and we cannot guarantee that the selected candidate will be accepted by the Social Policy Department, the III will support the candidate’s application.

See this link for more details: https://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/graduate/vrs-social-policy.

Our Visiting PhD Grant may cover up to £2,500 per term. This amount will cover tuition fees for the hosting Department (100£ per week) and up to £500 to cover travel costs. Please contact j.t.dirksen@lse.ac.ukfor further clarifications on the application process.

Previous visitors

Victoria Hünewaldt, Università degli Studi di Siena (co-hosted with the III Research Programme on Opportunity, Mobility and the Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth), early 2026.

LSE Festival Exhibition: Visions for the Future

As part of ‘LSE Festival: Visions for the Future’, the Perceptions of Inequality research programme developed an interactive exhibition component that translated their research findings into accessible, visually engaging formats. This was an important opportunity for the programme to engage with the broader public about the importance of understanding inequality perceptions. The exhibition featured data visualisations showing how people across different countries and social groups misperceive inequality, interactive demonstrations allowing visitors to test their own perceptions against reality, and narrative presentations exploring how stories and personal experiences shape our understanding of economic disparities. One particularly noteworthy element was an interactive quiz where visitors could estimate income and wealth distributions in the UK and compare their estimates with actual data.