Why does wealth poverty matter? How is it measured? How prevalent is it? What factors raise households' risk of being wealth poor? What policies can mitigate it? A new WP by @schechtlm.eurosky.social & @janetgornick.bsky.social, prepared for the Annual Review of Sociology, addresses those questions.
Manuel Schechtl
@schechtlm.eurosky.social
Assistant Prof. at UNC-Chapel Hill | previously Postdoc at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality | PhD from Humboldt University Berlin | inequality, wealth, poverty, taxes, redistribution, social & public policy. https://schechtl.github.io
Can childhood exposure to rising local wealth inequality help to explain growing class gaps in income mobility? Short answer: Yes! New paper with @ftorche.bsky.social now out OA in @sociologicalsci.bsky.social here: sociologicalscience.com/articles-v13... #Demography #Sociology #EconSky
1/ For my #book project (which I just turned in!), I looked at how #health varied by #income in states where people were more or less likely to be #stuck (i.e., experience disadvantage in multiple domains). In #stuck places, everyone's health is worse off.
Can economic #opportunity help flatten the #income-#health gradient in the United States? Check out our new @medrxivpreprint.bsky.social by Anant Mishra, @rourkeobrien.bsky.social, and Atheen Venkataramani! Paper here: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6... Key figure:
We asked four LLMs how exposed your job is to AI. They could NOT agree. Management: 15% vs 90% Legal: 10% vs 75% Healthcare: 5% vs 60% Same rubric. Same jobs. Same data. Different AI, completely different answer. New @nber.org working paper with @michelle-yin.bsky.social & @hoavu.bsky.social ! 1/
My new paper out in Social Forces shows how competency microaggressions—like “diversity hire” comments framed as jokes—shape Black workers’ collaboration in teams. academic.oup.com/sf/advance-a...
What drives the growth of private wealth? Has inequality increased? How does tax policy shape wealth across generations? Now published in Nature-Scientific Data: the data descriptor of the GC Wealth Project Data Warehouse by @stone-lis.bsky.social & Roma Tre University www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New paper documenting a negative association between childhood exposure to local wealth inequality and inter-class social ties in adulthood. If children have fewer chances to meet peers from different class backgrounds, those divides may persist far beyond childhood.
My latest article is online now at American Sociological Review: “Kinship Interlocks.” It’s about how some elite families manage to stay rich and powerful for many generations while others don’t. 🧵 (1/16)
Kinship Interlocks: How the Intimate Exchange of Wealth, Status, and Power Generates Upper-Class Persistence - Shay O’Brien, 2026
How do some families manage to entrench themselves in the upper class for many generations while others do not? Bringing together economic sociology, political ...
journals.sagepub.com
From February 2026 - Adolescent Exposure to Economic Inequality and Belief in the ‘American Dream’ on Entering Adulthood - https://cup.org/4rmfyyE - @sldemora.bsky.social & Benjamin J. Newman #OpenAccess
⚠️ New WP ⚠️ with @ftorche.bsky.social: Can childhood exposure to local wealth inequality help explain growing class gaps in income mobility? Short answer: Yes! Read the full answer here: doi.org/10.31235/osf... #Demography #Sociology #EconSky
⚠️ New WP ⚠️ with @ftorche.bsky.social: Can childhood exposure to local wealth inequality help explain growing class gaps in income mobility? Short answer: Yes! Read the full answer here: doi.org/10.31235/osf... #Demography #Sociology #EconSky
New paper out looking at financial assets and cardiometabolic risk among women and men in the AddHealth data: authors.elsevier.com/c/1mgBn_6KUS...
Hot of the presses research on high-cost alternative credit instruments and the welfare state by Rhodes, Berger, and @umichstonecid.bsky.social associate @davonnorris.bsky.social 👇
This is one heck of a study by the Ohio State credit data crew, led by Alec Rhodes. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... I've seen him present on it a few times. Very excited to see it out in print.
While most people prefer equal inheritance, wealthy individuals are more willing to support unequal transfers when they help preserve wealth across generations ➡️ based on new experimental evidence now published with @natrinh.bsky.social and @dariatisch.bsky.social in @sfjournal.bsky.social
Excited to share a new #OA study with @dariatisch.bsky.social and @schechtlm.bsky.social🎉We show that while most people prefer equal inheritance, wealthy individuals are more willing to support unequal transfers when they help preserve wealth across generations ➡️ academic.oup.com/sf/advance-a...
📖🚀New w/ @yiangli.bsky.social & Linda Waite in @ssreditorial.bsky.social. Ever wonder how your spouse’s childhood shows up in your life? Our “Linked Long Arms” framework shows early disadvantage can echo into later-life friendships, confidants, and community ties. More in doi.org/10.1016/j.ss...
(If you haven’t yet pinned Paper Skygest, a personalized feed for Bluesky posts about papers, you can check it out here ⤵️) (2/7)
New from me: An interactive data visualization showing billionaire migration: paths from birthplace to most recent residence for > 3,100 of the world’s richest individuals. Most importantly, fun to play around with; also, useful for thinking about q's re: elites and comparative wealth ineq. 1/5
Billionaire Migration: An Interactive Map
An interactive map of city-level migration flows for 3,106 billionaires from birth to most recent residence.
wesleystubenbord.com
👉 Our new paper uses daily mobility data to show that spatial isolation is much more common today among those living in advantaged neighborhoods than the converse. 👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
Rising wealth concentration tends to undermine democracy, according to a Stone Center Working Paper by @schechtlm.bsky.social. In this interview, he discusses how he drew on two new sources of data to compare democratic backsliding in 50 U.S. states. stonecenter.gc.cuny.edu/the-effect-o...
The Effect of Increasing Wealth Inequality on U.S. Democracy at the State Level - Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality
Manuel Schechtl, a 2022–2024 Stone Center postdoctoral scholar, discusses his Stone Center Working Paper, which combines two new sources of data to compare the extent of democratic backsliding in all ...
stonecenter.gc.cuny.edu
Is childhood exposure to local wealth inequality associated with upward income mobility achieved in adulthood? Yes! Check out my new paper, just published in @natureportfolio.nature.com here: doi.org/10.1038/s414... #EconSky #Sociology #Demography
Is childhood exposure to local wealth inequality associated with upward income mobility achieved in adulthood? Yes! Check out my new paper, just published in @natureportfolio.nature.com here: doi.org/10.1038/s414... #EconSky #Sociology #Demography
I am organizing session 711 Wealth Inequality: International Comparative Perspectives at PAA 2026. Deadline for submissions is Oct 5th. Non-comparative papers on wealth inequality are also welcome.
I am organizing session 711 Wealth Inequality: International Comparative Perspectives at PAA 2026. Deadline for submissions is Oct 5th. Non-comparative papers on wealth inequality are also welcome.
ICYMI: See what we're up to in September: mailchi.mp/umich/cid-se... First up: @schechtlm.bsky.social on September 9! #AcademicSky #PublicPolicy #WealthInequality
Tocqueville on the incompatibility of economic inequality with democracy.
We invite applications for two postdoctoral scholars! These 2-year positions start in Aug. 2026 and are based at the GC CUNY Stone Center in NYC. One is focused on #mobility and #poverty, the other on #wealth and/or wealth inequality. Apply by Nov. 3! #EconSky #Sociology #PoliSciSky bit.ly/40TZR6J
Applications Are Open for Two Postdoctoral Positions at the GC CUNY Stone Center - Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality
The Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality is seeking applicants for an eighth cohort of postdoctoral scholars. These full-time, two-year positions will begin in August 2026.
stonecenter.gc.cuny.edu
📣 Hot off the press 📣 We document tremendous growth in U.S. federal place-based funding, show it has disproportionately gone to areas with more nonprofits & stronger housing markets, and find a pattern of cumulative advantage in funding among high-poverty neighborhoods. doi.org/10.1093/sf/s...
Federal place-based policy and the geography of inequality in the United States, 1990–2019
Abstract. This paper assesses the growth and spatial distribution of federal place-based policies in the United States. Using a novel dataset of federal pl
doi.org
I am soo excited to share my newest article, “Unnatural Wills.” It’s about inheritance disputes!!! Murder, gold diggers, sex work, racial passing, secret lesbian lovers…WOW this was fun to write, and I hope it’s fun to read, too.
Unnatural Wills: Inheritance Disputes and Inequality
Within the conceptual frame of relational economic sociology, inheritance disputes are a canonical form of relational mismatch. But the social patterning of relational mismatches, and their various t...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com