With the Iowa caucuses only a few days away, the candidates for both the Democratic and Republican 2016 presidential nominations have found themselves in the midst of tight races. Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have sparred over issues such as health care, gun control, and affordable college education, while GOP contenders including Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have promised to crack down on undocumented immigrants and combat terrorism.

A number of RSF authors and grantees recently spoke to the press about these leading election issues. In an interview with the International Business Times, Arne Kalleberg, author of the RSF book Good Jobs, Bad Jobs and an incoming Visiting Scholar, commented on the Democratic candidates’ promises to raise wages and create jobs for the middle class. He noted that although 2015 saw modest job growth, wages have remained stagnant. “There’s been a growing divide,” said Kalleberg, “in the quality of jobs that people have. People are falling way behind.”

In interviews with the New York Times, RSF trustee Richard Thaler and RSF grantees Nicholas Bloom and David Autor discussed the persistence of economic inequality, which has emerged as the central focus of Sanders’s campaign. In one study, Bloom and his colleagues analyzed 35 years of Social Security data and found that most of the economic gains over the last few decades have been going to those at the very top of the income distribution. Even now, Thaler added, “It’s pretty much indisputable that the percentage of income being earned by the top 1 percent, or the top quarter of 1 percent, is going up.” Research by RSF grantees Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page—cited in a recent column by Nicholas Kristof—has further shown that the wealthy hold disproportionate influence over public policy, in part because politicians seeking office rely so heavily on fundraising.

This feature is part of an ongoing RSF blog series, Work in Progress, which highlights some of the research of our current class of Visiting Scholars.

In a time of rising college tuitions and soaring student loan debt, higher education has become increasingly inaccessible to all but the affluent. Though a number of policymakers—including several of the 2016 presidential candidates—have sought to make post-secondary education more affordable for the middle class, new research shows that college campuses themselves may play a role in exacerbating inequality.

At the Foundation, Visiting Scholar Tali Mendelberg (Princeton University) is conducting an in-depth analysis of the consequences of affluence on U.S. college campuses, looking at how concentrations of high-income students at universities may reinforce economic inequality. She is exploring whether the presence of many affluent students creates social norms on campuses that prioritize the wealthy and marginalize low-income students, thereby leading to lower rates of leadership and future political participation among low-income young adults.

In an interview with the Foundation, Mendelberg explained how these norms are established, how they exacerbate inequality, and what kinds of policies might ameliorate them. A paper on this topic will be published later this year (a working paper can be found here).

Q. Recent studies of social inequality, including work by RSF author Martin Gilens, have shown that affluent Americans (those in the top 10% of the income distribution) hold significant influence over public policy and tend to oppose policies that reduce inequality. Your current work expands this body of research to look at the role of college campuses in shaping the economic preferences of the affluent. Although colleges have long been thought to "liberalize" students' beliefs, you've found that they can also conservatize. How has this worked in terms of students' economic beliefs? What kinds of norms around money and affluence are established on college campuses?

The Russell Sage Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of nineteen leading social scientists as Visiting Scholars for the 2016-2017 academic year. During their time in residence, they will pursue research and writing projects that reflect the Foundation's commitment to strengthening the social sciences and conducting research "for the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States."

Several incoming scholars will undertake research on immigration, including an investigation of how low-income Latino parents navigate the family court system, an analysis of how race and gender affect immigrant incorporation in the U.S. today, and a working group that will examine how the Great Recession has affected the second-generation immigrants’ transitions to adulthood. Other scholars will work on projects related to socioeconomic inequality, including a historical study of the relationship between the rise of corporate power and economic inequality, and an investigation of how social relations and personal networks influence the health outcomes of disadvantaged groups. Others in the incoming class will investigate the changing nature of work and the labor force, including a study of precarious scheduling practices in retail firms, and an analysis of how education and skills development influence midlife labor force participation among racially diverse workers.

To read more about the individual scholars’ research topics, click the links below or visit the Incoming Scholars page on our website.

• Toni C. Antonucci, Elizabeth M. Douvan Collegiate Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan
• Saurabh Bhargava, Assistant Professor of Economics, Carnegie Mellon University
• Mesmin Destin, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Education, Northwestern University
• Katharine Donato, Professor of Sociology, Vanderbilt University
• Greg J. Duncan, Distinguished Professor at the School of Education, University of California, Irvine
• Cynthia Feliciano, Associate Professor of Sociology and Chicano/Latino Studies, University of California, Irvine
• Paola Giuliano, Associate Professor of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles
• Hilary W. Hoynes, Professor of Public Policy and Economics, University of California, Berkeley
• James S. Jackson, Daniel Katz Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan
• Chinhui Juhn, Henry Graham Professor of Economics, University of Houston
• Arne L. Kalleberg, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Vikki S. Katz, Associate Professor of Communication, Rutgers University
• Susan J. Lambert, Associate Professor in the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago
• Helen Levy, Research Associate Professor at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan
• Mark Lilla, Professor of Humanities, Columbia University
• Chandra Muller, Professor of Sociology, University of Texas, Austin
• Cecilia L. Ridgeway, Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Stanford University
• Rubén G. Rumbaut, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of California, Irvine
• Jay J. Van Bavel, Associate Professor of Psychology, New York University