Overview

The decades since 1980 have seen sharply rising income and wealth inequality in a number of developed countries, notably the US and UK. The rise is particularly marked at the top of the income distribution. Many countries have also experienced a stagnation in middle class income growth and declines in social mobility. INET Oxford researchers are playing a leading role collecting and analysing data on income and wealth inequality from around the world and analysing the causes of this shift. Our scholars are also investigating the links between trends in inequality and different modes of economic growth, technology, globalisation, labour market arrangements, the financial system, and public policies. INET Oxford scholars are also examining the role that wealth and inheritance play in the economy, issues of gender in patterns of inequality, and the broad economic and social impacts of unemployment.

INET Oxford scholars are also actively working on policies to address issues of economic justice and fairness, including active labor market policies, private sector practices, and institutional reforms.

Related Projects


Recent Publications

Jul 2026
Podcast
Property Unwrapped: Build, baby, build
Olly Mann ,  John Muellbauer
Jun 2026
Journal
Power and poverty: The distributional consequences of Walmart Supercenter openings
in Labour Economics
Lukas Lehner ,  Zachary Parolin ,  Clemente Pignatti ,  Rafael Pintro-Schmitt
May 2026
Journal
Countervailing Powers: Labor Unions Against the Buyer Power of Walmart Supercenters
in American Sociological Review
Joshua Choper ,  Lukas Lehner ,  Zachary Parolin
Apr 2026
INET Oxford Working Paper
Apr 2026
Journal
Mar 2026
INET Oxford Working Paper
No. 2026-08 - Basic Income and Labor Supply: Evidence from an RCT in Germany
Sarah Bernhard ,  Sandra Bohmann ,  Susann Fiedler ,  Maximilian Kasy ,  Jürgen Schupp ,  Frederik Schwerter
Mar 2026
Journal
Global Inequality of Opportunity in Education Decreased During the 20th Century
in The British Journal of Sociology
Michael Grätz ,  Mobarak Hossain ,  Martina Beretta
Mar 2026
INET Oxford Working Paper
No. 2026-07 - Macroeconomic Consequences of Sustained Warming: A Bias-Corrected Dynamic Heterogeneous Panel Approach
Samuele Centorrino ,  Emanuele Massetti ,  Kamiar Mohaddes ,  Mehdi Raissi ,  Jui-Chung Yang
Feb 2026
INET Oxford Working Paper
Feb 2026
Chapter
Data-Driven Economic Agent-Based Models
Marco Pangallo ,  R. Maria del Rio-Chanona
Feb 2026
Chapter
Beyond Efficiency: Labor-Market Resilience in an Age of AI and Net Zero
R. Maria del Rio-Chanona ,  Morgan R. Frank ,  Penny Mealy ,  Esteban Moro ,  Ljubica Nedelkoska
Feb 2026
INET Oxford Working Paper
No. 2026-04 - New technologies and the rise of wage inequality
Raquel Sebastián ,  Pedro Salas-Rojo ,  Juan C. Palomino ,  Juan Gabriel Rodríguez
View All Related Publications

Who's Involved