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
Jun 2026
Journal
Resilience of solidarity: Austria’s social insurance model from a comparative perspective
in Journal of European Social Policy
Lukas Lehner ,  Philip Rathgeb
Jun 2026
Journal
Wealth Concentration and Prosocial Behavior in Everyday Life
in Contexts
Manuel Schechtl ,  Nhat An Trinh ,  Rafael Carranza ,  Fabian Pfeffer
Jun 2026
Journal
Insights From Cointegration: Gender and Age Disparities in the US Labor Market
in Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics
Victoria Tribone ,  Andrew B. Martinez ,  Neil R. Ericsson
Jun 2026
Journal
Health Care as Social Investment? Public Opinion on Trade-Offs Between Curative and Preventive Care in Four OECD Countries
in Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law
Olivier Jacques ,  Sharon Baute ,  Marius R. Busemeyer ,  David Weisstanner
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
Apr 2026
Journal
Responding to growing health care costs: Public preferences in four OECD countries
in SSM - Health Systems
Olivier Jacques ,  Sharon Baute ,  Marius R. Busemeyer ,  David Weisstanner
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
View All Related Publications

Who's Involved