Disadvantaged groups and social mobility

This project has three main objectives in line with UNU-WIDER’s tradition in the area of inclusion and horizontal inequality: (1) to shed further light on the extent to which inequalities run along ethnic, gender, and other communal lines; (2) to understand the determinants of such group-based inequalities, including the potential for change; and (3) to consider the impact of such inequalities on development and structural transformation.

The project is organized under two main components. The first addresses the question of what we have learnt so far about discrimination and affirmative action, and will focus on evaluating various affirmative-action policies that have been used to correct historical inequalities. The second focuses on the politics of group-based inequalities, distilling and developing key perspectives from political science and political economy.