My research broadly covers socio-economic inequality across countries, time and space. More specifically, I study cross-country differences in wealth inequality and how they relate to housing and welfare regimes and social policies. Other research interests aim at re-orientating empirical and theoretical class analysis to capture the rising importance of wealth. More recently, I have turned to studying the cultural processes in the maintenance of inequality, for example through the analysis of media reporting on the super-rich.

In my current work on cross-country differences in wealth inequality, I integrate social stratification, social policy, and political economy research to understand drivers and consequences of wealth inequality, its relationship to other dimensions of stratification, and how wealth inequality can be addressed by public interventions. This line of research fosters closer attention to taxation policies, housing policies, mortgage and credit markets, as well as welfare regimes. For this research – published amongst other outlets in American Sociological Review – I have won the Aldi Hagenaars Memorial Award and the RC28 significant scholarship award.

In my work on class and wealth (accumulation), I am interested in theoretical and empirical perspectives how to integrate wealth into class analysis. I study e.g. gender differences in wealth across occupational classes, or how portfolio classes accumulate wealth over time. In my theoretical paper(s) I vouch for bringing property class analysis back to life to account for the rising importance of wealth. Lastly, I also study the cultural processes in the maintenance of inequality. Using media data, I am interested how frames and narrations around deservingness and legitimacy with regards to wealthy business owner help to maintain high levels of inequality.

My work relies on a multitude of different methodological approaches such as the analysis of large-scale comparative household survey (panel) data or media data, employing mostly decomposition techniques, survey experimental studies, panel regressions, quantile regressions, and structural equation modeling.

Download my full CV here.