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 focus on three key dimensions of inequality: income, wealth, and health, and zoom in on inequalities by gender. 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. Utilizing natural language processing (NLP), we identify dominant themes, assess sentiment variations, and compare regional differences in public discourse. We also examine patterns in global inequality discussions, such as those linked to macroeconomic performance and demographic composition, providing a data-driven perspective on evolving inequality narratives worldwide.

Exposure, Information, and Circumstances - Survey Experimental Evidence on Perceptions of Inequality
More details to follow.

• 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
• Queena Chong
• Hannah Heppner
• Cecilia Saavedra

Forthcoming Special Issue in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

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.

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

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.

Chong, Queena, Costa-Font, Joan, Cowell, Frank and Dirksen, Jakob (2024) Did inequality shape the Brexit vote? LSE Inequalities,18 December. International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.

2nd Welfare & Policy Conference
Organised by the Society for Research on Welfare and Policy (WAP), and the Bordeaux School of Economics
5 May 2025, 1pm - 6 May 2025, 5pm.

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. 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 ProgrammeThursday 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.

Upcoming Visits

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.