About the Summer School on Socioeconomic Inequality

The Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group Summer Schools on Socioeconomic Inequality provide a state-of-the-art overview on the study of inequality and human flourishing. Participants learn about the integration between psychological and sociological insights into the foundations of human behavior and conventional economic models. Through rigorous lectures students are trained on various tools needed to study the issue of inequality.



During these intense in-person programs, students attend lectures, engage in discussions with leading faculty from around the world, present their own research, and interact with peers from institutions across the globe.

"SSSI changed my perspective by providing a panoramic view of the different ways in which inequality matters and the most promising approaches in this area of research."
—Martin Fiszbein, Economics, Brown University
"As empirical economists, we should find the economic meaning of what we study first and learn about the relevant contexts as deep as possible, and only then use or develop appropriate economic methods to study it. That’s what I learned from every lecturer."
—Jingliang Lu, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
"Part of the value of SSSI was the breadth of material covered. While I know portions of the inequality literature, exposure to how others are thinking about inequality was very valuable... My favorite part of SSSI was getting to meet peers from around the world who are thinking about the same research questions as me. Many people I have met I am sure I will continue to communicate with for years to come."
—John Eric Humphries, The University of Chicago



Students are selected from a diverse, competitive applicant pool and represent many disciplines including: economics, public policy, sociology, social thought, and social work. Faculty are selected by the HCEO directors from economics, finance, statistics, and epidemiology.



To date, SSSI has been held in Chicago (2012, 2013 and 2015, 2016, 2017), Beijing (2013, 2014, and 2015), Bergen (2019) Chengdu (2019), Guangzhou (2016 and 2017), Bonn (2016 and 2018), Moscow (2017, 2019), Cambridge, UK (2014), and virtually (2021).

 

Upcoming Summer Schools

 

2020 Online Summer School on Socioeconomic Inequality

For HCEO’s first virtual Summer School on Socioeconomic Inequality (SSSI), we’ve selected lectures from previous in-person summer schools across years and countries to present an online course designed for Ph.D. students. HCEO’s summer school program is aimed at teaching the tools needed to study inequality and to communicate a sense of the research frontier on this topic. We also intend for the virtual SSSI to break down barriers between theoretical, econometric, and empirical work. In it, you will find video lectures from 11 leading scholars and HCEO network members (including HCEO Directors James J. Heckman and Steven N. Durlauf), as well as reading lists related to the lectures.

Engage with the 2020 Online Summer School on Socioeconomic Inequality now.

 

Previous Summer Schools