We’re excited to introduce our esteemed faculty affiliates for the 2024-2026 term, representing five diverse departments at UBC. With expertise spanning economics, sociology, business, psychology, and political science, our affiliates are at the forefront of inequality research.
Their work encompasses a wide range of topics, from examining the cognitive effects of poverty to evaluating the distributional impacts of climate policies. Together, they’re driving insightful discussions and proposing innovative solutions to address wealth and income disparities across Canada and beyond.
Learn more about each of our distinguished faculty affiliates below, and visit the ‘People‘ tab for more details about their work.
Siwan Anderson is a Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. Her research focuses on social inequities in low income countries, particularly gender issues, and examines how these inequities translate into wealth and income disparities.
Patrick Baylis is an Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research examines the unequal impact of environmental threats like wildfires and air pollution, and evaluates policies to mitigate these effects, particularly for vulnerable populations.
Paul Beaudry is a Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research explores the causes and consequences of technological change and job polarization, and how these factors influence income inequality and economic growth.
Felipe Valencia Caicedo is an Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research delves into the historical roots of income inequality in Latin America, particularly examining the role of slavery in shaping Brazil’s income distribution.
Thomas Davidoff is an Associate Professor at the Sauder School of Business. His research delves into the effects of taxation and land use regulations on housing markets, shedding light on the intersection between housing policies and income inequality.
Mauricio Drelichman is a Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research examines state and private institutions in early modern Europe, focusing on Spain, and explores their impact on long-term development and income inequality.
Claudio Ferraz is a Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research focuses on governance and accountability in developing countries, exploring their impact on politics and public service delivery, with particular attention to how political dynamics shape wealth and income inequality in democracies.
Patrick Francois is a Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research focuses on political economy and development in countries with weak institutions and significant income inequality, examining democratic transitions, elite displacement, and institutional changes necessary for sustained welfare improvements.
Sylvia Fuller is a Professor in the Department of Sociology. Her research focuses primarily on understanding how entrenched patterns of inequality in the labour market develop and erode, and in the implications of changing employment relations for workers’ prospects for security and mobility.
Giovanni Gallipoli is a Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research explores how heterogeneity influences individual behaviors and economic outcomes, with a focus on topics like skill formation policies and earnings inequality.
Steven Heine is a Professor in the Department of Psychology. His research investigates how perceptions of economic inequality influence cognitive processes and social behaviours, shedding light on its societal impact.
Florian Hoffman is an Associate Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research examines the effects of teacher quality on student achievement, the impact of technological change on earnings inequality, and life-cycle earnings dynamics.
Vince Hopkins is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science. His research applies behavioral science to enhance government services, particularly focusing on improving access to unemployment and labor market programs for low-income and marginalized individuals.
Torsten Jaccard is an Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research focuses on international trade and globalization, examining how these forces affect income and employment inequality, as well as the distribution of consumer gains.
Réka Juhász is an Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. Her research explores industrial policy, technology adoption, and industrialization, with a focus on the distributional effects and potential of these policies to address income and wealth inequality.
Matt Lowe is an Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research focuses on understanding and reducing intergroup differences and investigating policies to mitigate untouchability practices, particularly in India.
Jamie McCasland is an Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. Her research delves into the private sector of low- and middle-income countries, examining labour market dynamics and firm organization, with a focus on inequality issues such as race, gender, and class.
Kevin Milligan is a Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research addresses lifetime inequality, child development policies, and the effectiveness of tax and transfer systems in mitigating inequality.
Terry Moon is an Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research in public economics and corporate finance assesses the welfare implications of tax reforms on firms and workers, focusing on income inequality and policy remedies.
Sam Norris is an Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research investigates the impact of the criminal justice system on individuals and communities, focusing on incarceration, socioeconomic status, and reforms to reduce crime and support vulnerable populations.
Nathan Nunn is a Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research explores the historical and dynamic processes of economic development, focusing on factors like distrust and gender norms, and how local culture influences economic policies and global inequality.
Jesse Perla is an Associate Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research focuses on macroeconomics, growth, and inequality, using machine learning to analyze firm and worker heterogeneity and information frictions.
Michael Peters is a Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research in economic theory explores market competition and algorithmic job matching, focusing on their impact on economic inequality.
Marit Rehavi is an Associate Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. Her research examines how experts’ decisions contribute to inequality, particularly focusing on the role of discretion in resource allocation.
Lindsey Richardson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology. Her research investigates poverty dynamics and health outcomes for marginalized populations, focusing on policy reform and community development to address income insufficiency and labor market exclusion.
Raffaele Saggio is an Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His expertise lies in quantifying labor market frictions, with a focus on firm-driven inequality.
Heather Sarsons is an Associate Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. Her research examines how social norms and behavioral biases drive gender inequalities in labour markets and unionization and the effectiveness of related government policies.
Paul Schrimpf is an Associate Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research delves into understanding market dynamics, firm behavior, and consumer choices, shedding light on various aspects of economic decision-making.
Henry Siu is a Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research examines job polarization, wage dynamics, and gender and racial wage gaps, focusing on how occupational changes impact labor market inequality and the effects of policies on income distribution.
Erik Snowberg is the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Data-Intensive Methods in Economics at the Vancouver School of Economics. He specializes in understanding how politics and policy shape economic outcomes, with a focus on the measurement of poverty and inequality.
Munir Squires is an Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. His research examines how family and kinship ties influence economic outcomes, focusing on marriage patterns, mobility, and inequality.
Guy Stecklov is a Professor in the Department of Sociology. His research explores social and economic inequality, demographic change, and urbanization using statistical and demographic methods, focusing on processes like fertility decline, immigration, and urban development.
Katherine Wagner is an Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics. Her research investigates the distributional impacts of climate policies and the role of government in natural disaster insurance markets.
Jiaying Zhao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology. Her research investigates the cognitive effects of poverty and scarcity, developing cash transfer interventions to alleviate their psychological burdens among low-income individuals.