The Russell Sage Foundation’s program on Social Inequality supports innovative research on whether rising economic inequality has affected social, political, and economic institutions, and the extent to which increased inequality has affected equality of opportunity, social mobility, and the intergenerational transmission of advantage. We seek investigator-initiated research projects that will broaden our understanding of the causes and consequences of rising economic inequalities in the United States.
Research Questions in regard to youth include:
Child Development and Child Outcomes
- As income and wealth inequality have grown, is a family’s economic status more strongly related to children’s development and outcomes in areas such as cognitive or behavioral development, academic achievement, and educational attainment?
- Are intergenerational resources (e.g. resources of parents and grandparents) playing a more important role now than in the past?
Families, Family Structure, and Family Formation
- How do recent trends in income and wealth inequality relate to trends in family formation and family structure?
- To what extent are changes in family formation and family structure contributing to changes in economic inequality, and to what extent are they a consequence of those changes?
Letter of Intent due January 5th, 2016.