UvA economist to lead international research on inequality
80 researchers to study the effects of socio-economic disparity
Wiemer Salverda, director of the UvA's Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS), will coordinate new international research on the growing inequalities in income and education and the social, political and cultural consequences of this disparity in the European Union, the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia.
The 80 researchers participating in the ambitious interdisciplinary study Growing INequalities' Impacts (GINI) are all leading figures in their academic fields. In the 25 European Union member states, they will examine educational performance and access to education, unemployment, standard of living and life expectancy, and social cohesion and polarisation. Their findings will be compared with the situation in developed countries outside the EU, such as the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia. The researchers will also present recommendations to policy makers to help diminish socio-economic inequalities.
AMCIS
For this study, the AIAS will work with the UvA's new Amsterdam Centre for Inequality Studies (AMCIS). In addition to labour economist Wiemer Salverda, a number of UvA professors and researchers are also involved in the study. Professor of Sociology, Herman van de Werfhorst, Political Science professor Wouter van der Brug, senior university lecturer in Political Science Brian Burgoon, Sociology lecturer Caroline Dewilde and AIAS Economics postdoc Marloes de Graaf-Zijl, will take part in the project. Karel van der Toorn, chairman of the UvA Board of Governors, signed a contract on 12 February in which the UvA officially launches the study with six participating universities.
The project will commence with a conference in March at the London School of Economics. The conference will be opened by László Andor, the new EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. The EU will invest 2.7 million euro out of the total costs of 3.5 million euro for the three-year project.