Zach Parolin, Director of the Economics, Inequality and Opportunity (EIO) Programme at INET Oxford, has today opened a call for papers for a new conference to be held at Nuffield College, Oxford between 10th and 11th of September 2026.

The Atkinson Conference on Economic and Social Inequality will bring together up to 100 academics and policy researchers to discuss contemporary issues of inequality and public policy.

Plenary events include keynotes from Phillipe Aghion (2025 Nobel Laureate in Economics; Collège de France & London School of Economics) and Janet Gornick (Graduate Center, City University of New York), as well as a roundtable on inequality in the age of AI moderated by the FT’s Sarah O’Connor.

The conference is named in honour of Sir Anthony (Tony) Atkinson (1944–2017), one of the most influential scholars of inequality. Atkinson was a Fellow of Nuffield College for over two decades and Warden of the College from 1994 to 2005. His work continues to shape how we understand and address inequality around the world.

The organising committee - Zach Parolin, Juliana de Castro Galvão, Selçuk Bedük, Niki Savage and Jonathan Martin - welcomes both established and early-career scholars working on questions of economic and social inequality, broadly defined. There are no registration fees.

To participate in this new conference, you need to submit an abstract before 22 May 2026, describing the research question, data and methods, and main findings or expected contributions. More information on the conference and the Call for Papers submission process is available on the conference website.