The EU measures poverty as HH income below 60% of the national median. In a new paper, we introduce an alternative, the European Supplemental Poverty Measure (EU-SPM), and show that it vastly outperforms the EU’s measure across a wide range of validation tests. www.inet.ox.ac.uk/publications...

No. 2026-30 - The European Supplemental Poverty Measure: A Poverty…

The European Union’s headline poverty indicator, the at-risk-of-poverty rate (AROP), counts a person as poor when their household’s equivalised disposable…

inet.ox.ac.uk

"The housing shortage in the United States not only drives up rents, it is also a significant driver of poverty." The New York Times summarizes my collaboration Pew, which quantifies how high housing costs lead to higher poverty rates for 10 U.S. states. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/r...

Where High Rents Drive People Into Poverty

A new study identified 10 locations where higher-than-average housing costs have impacted poverty the most.

nytimes.com

Are inequality researchers too concerned with the ultra-rich? Proud to take part in the Atkinson Conference at Nuffield College (Oxford). On Sep 10, I’ll discuss with Mike Brewer moderated by Juliana de Castro Galvao. Info: atkinsonconference.github.io

Just under 2 weeks til the closing date for the Assoc Prof in Law, Politics and Computational Social Science at Nuffield College and the University of Oxford. This is an amazing opportunity to be part of the Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods. Join us! www.politics.ox.ac.uk/opportunity/...

Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) and LIS Data Center are hiring a 3-year postdoc for work on public policy, welfare and socio-economic inequality. Open to economics, sociology, pol sci and related disciplines. Apply by Sep 15th: jobs.liser.lu/job/Esch-sur...

How well can we predict which children will end up poor adults or rich adults? Or how much education they'll earn? In a new working paper, @zparolin.bsky.social and I show the predictability of life outcomes depends on the country and outcome. www.inet.ox.ac.uk/publications... Highlights below! 🧵👇

New analysis from me & Diane Schanzenbach, possibly my favorite piece ever: We study the SNAP payment error rate and explain why tying how much a state will have to contribute toward SNAP payments to its PER is inherently empirically unstable. Remand. www.hamiltonproject.org/publication/...

No child poverty in Sweden? Think again! We found big differences in poverty rates, poverty gaps and poverty buffers between children of Swedish-born and foreign-born parents. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... With @siddarthaaradhya.bsky.social and @rafgrotti.bsky.social

Very very upset at the University of Cambridge higher ups. I don’t think their remaining in situ given this week - in court and with Arday - is remotely tenable.

Job alert! 📣 I’m recruiting a 3-year postdoc for my ERC Stg project DIVREP, which examines within-country variation in reproductive behaviour and its determinants across the globe. 🗓️ Deadline: 16 September 2026 www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/events/postd... Please share and apply!

Feeling deprived of academic talks over the summer? This Thursday I'm presenting new work with @zparolin.bsky.social for the Oxford Metrics & Models seminar. Online talk and all are welcome! 2pm Oxford time, 7am Colorado time. Happy to share the MS Teams link with you. metrics-and-models.github.io

#Walmart #Supercenter openings are associated with a 2.2 percentage point (18%) rise in #poverty, and the increase persists for at least a decade. Our article is now published in #LabourEconomics, with @zparolin.bsky.social, Clemente Pignatti & Rafael Pintro-Schmitt.

Power and poverty: The distributional consequences of Walmart Supercenter openings doi.org/10.1016/j.la... Paper in Labour Economics by Lukas Lehner, @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social Fellow @zparolin.bsky.social, Clemente Pignatti and Rafael Pintro Schmitt

With @joshuachoper.bsky.social & @lukaslehner.bsky.social in the American Sociological Review, we ask: What happens to organized labor when Walmart Supercenters enter a local labor market? Broadly, how do worker power and buyer power interact to shape inequality? journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

TODAY! ▶️"The EU Anti-Poverty Strategy: A Discussion with the European Commission and an Expert Panel." 2pm UK / 3pm CEST via Zoom as part of the INET Oxford Inequality Working Group. Join us to to discuss the Commission's new strategy to reduce poverty in the EU. www.inet.ox.ac.uk/events/the-e...

The EU Anti-Poverty Strategy: A Discussion with the European…

Afterward, two experts in European social policy – Bea Cantillon and Amílcar Moreira – will join Vila Nuñez for a discussion of the strategy. He…

inet.ox.ac.uk

Last week to apply! It's shaping up to be an exciting event on inequality, bringing together perspectives across disciplines and beyond academia. Researchers, policy experts, civil servants and others working on inequality are all welcome.

Zach Parolin@zparolin.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The Atkinson Conference on Economic and Social Inequality will take place on 10-11 September at Nuffield College (Oxford). ▶️Plenaries: Philippe Aghion, Janet Gornick & roundable moderated by FT's Sarah O'Connor. 🚩CfP Deadline: 22 May. Join us in Oxford! Details here: atkinsonconference.github.io

The Atkinson Conference on Economic and Social Inequality will take place on 10-11 September at Nuffield College (Oxford). ▶️Plenaries: Philippe Aghion, Janet Gornick & roundable moderated by FT's Sarah O'Connor. 🚩CfP Deadline: 22 May. Join us in Oxford! Details here: atkinsonconference.github.io

A postdoc position is now available in my project Markets and Mobility: How Employers Structure Economic Opportunity. Start date flexible within the next 12 months, apply by 9 May. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

📣 New job at Oxford's Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods (CASSM)! 📣 The Departments of Politics & IR (DPIR) and Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI) are hiring an Associate Professor of Causal and Experimental Methods. Come work with me and amazing Oxford peeps! Deadline NOON April 27th.

Join us today online for Alexandra Roulet's talk on "Making Labor Markets Work for Workers and Businesses", hosted by @zparolin.bsky.social @inetoxford.bsky.social @oxmartinschool.bsky.social. I'll be moderating the event and look forward to a vibrant discussion. www.inet.ox.ac.uk/events/makin...

📢 In this Social Forces article, I introduce occupational elitism as a novel measure of social closure: the share of upper-class background workers within an occupation. Its consequences for earnings stratification can be examined using a social closure theory lens. 🔓 doi.org/10.1093/sf/s...

On Feb 17, our @inetoxford.bsky.social team will launch the INET Oxford Inequality Working Group, an online seminar series that invites discussion on inequality and public policy. Our first speaker: @drodrik.bsky.social presents his new book. Details & registration: www.inet.ox.ac.uk/events/share...

Shared Prosperity in a Fractured World

Dani Rodrik of Harvard University will present his new book, "Shared Prosperity in a Fractured World: A New Economics for the Middle Class, the Global…

inet.ox.ac.uk

Billionaire Backlash is published today! (If you are in the US, this is a teaser -- out March 17 there). I had a fantastic conversation about the book with @hugorifkind.bsky.social from Times Radio yesterday. Link below (interview starts at about 50:30). Or join us for the launch in Oxford tonight.

Hugo Rifkind | Times Radio | The Times and the Sunday Times

Listen to Times Radio live for the latest breaking news, expert analysis and well-informed discussion covering the biggest stories of the day.

thetimes.com

Blavatnik School of Government@blavatnikschool.bsky.social · 9mo ago

EVENT: Blavatnik Book Launch: Billionaire Backlash Join Vice Dean Prof Pepper Culpepper for a conversation on the surprising story of how corporate scandals can change the way the world works for the better. 📆 29 Jan, 5:30pm Register ⬇️ https://ow.ly/jaQo50XRQzv

My new article, now online @sfjournal.bsky.social, examines trends in Black-White inequality by gender in earnings losses among displaced workers. Lost earnings premia, disadvantageous re-sorting, and statistical discrimination play distinct roles in shaping inequality. doi.org/10.1093/sf/s...

I'm hiring a post-doctoral researcher to join us at the University of Oxford and our @inetoxford.bsky.social Inequality team. Ideal candidate has experience in the fields of inequality, social mobility, and/or public policy. We can sponsor visas for non-UK applicants. www.inet.ox.ac.uk/vacancies

Vacancies

Jobs and Vacancies at INET Oxford, The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford

inet.ox.ac.uk

First day of my research visit at Oxford! Many thanks to @zparolin.bsky.social for the generous invitation. I’ll be presenting on simulating human behavior with LLMs on Jan 28 at the @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social Sociology Seminar. If you’ll be around Oxford, feel free to reach out!

we have 5 positions open at @goetheuni.bsky.social in Frankfurt - a 4,5 year postdoc in my @erc.europa.eu project on the educational cleavage - 2 postdoc & 2 PhD positions, 4 years, in a research group on Reconfiguration & Internalization of Social Structure www.uni-frankfurt.de/48794784/FB0...

🚨 JOB ALERT! 🚨 We're hiring an Associate Professor in Sociology in association with @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social! We welcome applicants with a wide range of empirical specialisations and regional focuses 🌍 Apply now ➡️ my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

🚨 #Hiring! 3yr #postdoc w/survey methodology experience to join the ERC-project SINGLE for its next stage of designing & launching a comparative multidisciplinary singlehood #survey in EU. Research area is open! Application deadline: 12-Jan-2026 (12PM CET). Barcelona-based. 👉🏻 shorturl.at/CmY0F

If you’ll be at APPAM, consider joining for the Kershaw Award Lecture on Thurs at 3:30pm. I’ll discuss new research on the intergenerational persistence of poverty: How does it compare to other measures of mobility? How it has evolved in the US? Which policies are effective in reducing it? & more.