Key Issues in Poverty & Inequality

This website is organized around 35 key issues that are fundamental to understanding the structure of poverty and inequality. If you select any of the key issues below, you will be provided with a brief summary of the relevant research questions, followed by a listing of the affiliates who specialize in that key issue as well as the media relevant to it (e.g., working papers, books, articles, videos, time series). We actively update our media databases to ensure that cutting-edge developments are made available.

• Children Effects of family origins, family structure, and family processes on opportunity
• Citizenship & Civil Rights Rights and prerogatives of citizens and discrimination against non-citizens
• Conflict, War, & Instability Relationship between poverty, inequality, and social conflict
• Consumption & Lifestyles Differences across social groups in the consumption of goods and services
• Crime & the Legal System Law as a source of inequality and as an instrument for reducing inequality
• Development Economics Poverty and inequality in developing economies
• Disabilities Disability as a cause and consequence of inequality
• Discrimination & Prejudice Types of discrimination, trends in discrimination, causes of discrimination
• Education Access to schooling and returns to schooling
• Elites Elite cohesiveness, reproduction of elites, power of elites
• Environment Unequal exposure to social and environmental threats
• Gender Gender differences in education, occupation, income
• Globalization Effects of globalization on income inequality and job displacement
• Health & Mental Health Disparities in health and health care
• History of Inequality Rise and fall of different types of inequality and inequality regimes
• Immigration Discrimination against immigrants, assimilation of immigrants, immigrant policy
• Income & Wealth Trends in and sources of income and wealth inequality
• Labor Markets Trends in employment and unemployment and types of employment contracts
• Land, Housing, & Homelessness Differential access to homeownership, causes and effects of homelessness
• Lifecourse, Family, & Demography Age discrimination, poverty and aging, divorce and poverty
• Measurement & Methodology Methods for monitoring trends in and sources of poverty and inequality
• Organizations The effects of different types of personnel systems on inequality
• Philosophy The ethics of poverty and inequality
• Policy The effects of social policy on poverty and inequality
• Politics & Political Economy The structure of the institutions governing inequality
• Poverty Trends in poverty, policy and poverty, the experience of poverty
• Public Opinion & Attitudes Attitudes about poverty and inequality
• Race & Ethnicity Racial and ethnic differentials in education and income
• Sexual Orientation Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation
• Social Class & Occupations The changing structure of social classes and occupations
• Social Mobility Rates of social mobility, causes and consequences of social mobility
• Social Networks Finding jobs through social networks
• Theory Theories about the structure and legitimacy of inequality
• Transportation Disparities in transportation use and effects of such disparities on inequality
• Future of Inequality The dynamics making for change and stability in inequality