Social Inequality
Since 2001, the Foundation’s Social Inequality program has examined the social and political consequences of rising economic inequality. The program has investigated a variety of areas of social life, from education and health care to intergenerational mobility, to determine whether the increasing financial gap between the rich and poor has also exacerbated social inequalities of the kind that amplify and entrench economic differences. Recently, the program has turned to in-depth examinations of two key institutions the United States relies on to counteract market-driven inequality: public education and the democratic electoral system.
Research
Social Inequality and Educational Disadvantage
Working Group
Co-funded with the Lyle M. Spencer Foundation, an interdisciplinary team of more than twenty researchers will focus both on the educational performance of disadvantaged students, as well as on the differences in outcomes between rich and poor students. 
Inequality and the Transmission of Advantage
Project Update
Thirty-eight researchers in ten countries are conducting studies on how family resources are correlated with the development of mobility-relevant skills and how those relationships may differ between countries and over the life course.
Books
Social Inequality
Inequality in income, earnings, and wealth has risen dramatically in the United States over the past three decades. Most research into this issue has focused on the causes—global trade, new technology, and economic policy—rather than the consequences of inequality. In Social Inequality, a group of the nation’s leading social scientists opens a wide-ranging inquiry into the social implications of rising economic inequality.
From Parents to Children
From Parents to Children compares whether and how parents' resources transmit advantage to their children at different stages of development.
Britain's War on Poverty
Britain’s War on Poverty offers a sharp analysis of the New Labour government’s anti-poverty agenda, its dramatic early success and eventual stalled progress.
Reports
Does America Promote Mobility As Well As Other Nations?
This November 2011 fact sheet, Does America Promote Mobility As Well As Other Nations?, previewed selected key findings from a multi-country study of economic mobility led by the Russell Sage Foundation with additional funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Sutton Trust. [...]
Neighborhoods, Obesity, and Diabetes — A Randomized Social Experiment
The question of whether neighborhood environment contributes directly to the development of obesity and diabetes remains unresolved. [...]
Gains and Gaps: Changing Inequality in U.S. College Entry and Completion
We describe changes over time in inequality in postsecondary education using nearly seventy years of data from the U.S. Census and the 1979 and 1997 National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth. We find growing gaps between children from high- and low-income families in college entry, persistence, and graduation. [...]
RSF Review
Inequality and Mobility: An Interview With Timothy Smeeding
RSF author Tim Smeeding discusses his research on inequality and economic mobility.
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