Over the past forty years, inequality has steadily increased in the United States. Income and wealth are becoming concentrated while wages for those in the middle and bottom of the distribution have stagnated or even fallen. The Opportunity Lab’s Social Safety Net and Employment Initiative focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of these fundamental trends in our economy, as well as the role social safety net programs have in magnifying or mitigating the rise in inequality. Led by Professor Hilary Hoynes, the Initiative concerns topics such as intergenerational mobility, the gender wage gap, and the role of employers in local and national labor markets. Other topics include preferences for redistribution, the effect of affirmative action policies on economic outcomes, and long-run effects of early life exposure to social safety net policies.

FACULTY LEADERSHIP