Call for Papers: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences

“WEALTH INEQUALITY: SOURCES, CONSEQUENCES, AND RESPONSES”

Edited by

FABIAN T. PFEFFER
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

and

ROBERT F. SCHOENI
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Growing concerns about high and rising levels of economic inequality have brought into focus the very unequal distribution of wealth. Recent research documents increasing wealth concentration at the very top, the loss of much of middle class wealth, and an increasing share of households with zero or negative net worth in the wake of the Great Recession. For this special issue, we invite new and innovative contributions that address the determinants of high and rising levels of wealth inequality, its economic and social consequences, and potential policy responses.

Family wealth may confer benefits that other components of socio-economic wellbeing, like income or occupational status, do not. It may serve as a buffer for income losses, as a marker of social and cultural status, as a resource that can be transferred directly across generations, as a source of political power, and more. Conversely, the lack of wealth may be consequential for families’ ability to make human capital investments, a source of psychological stress, or an indicator of historical roots of exclusion from asset accumulation.

The many benefits of and barriers to wealth attainment and asset ownership invite a multi-disciplinary approach to better understand the roots and consequences of high levels of wealth inequality. We invite social science contributions from many disciplines, including Economics, Sociology, Demography, History, Public Health, Medicine, Urban Studies, Social Work, Public Policy, Consumer Finances, Political Science, Law, Education, Psychology, and Geography. We welcome quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches that focus on net worth, net debt, or specific asset components, such as home ownership and equity, financial assets (e.g., savings, stocks), real assets, business wealth, and retirement wealth. Furthermore, we invite contributions studying the United States or that compare the United States with other industrialized countries, particularly if the goal is to understand the institutional context of wealth inequality and the potential impact of alternative institutional and legal arrangements.

Please visit https://www.russellsage.org/publications/category/current_rfa_rsfjournal/wealth-inequality for a full description of the topics covered in this call for papers.

Anticipated Timeline

Prospective contributors should submit a CV and an abstract (up to two pages in length, single or double spaced) of their study along with up to two pages of supporting material (e.g., tables, figures, pictures, etc.) no later than 5 PM EST on June 12, 2015to:

https://rsfjournal.onlineapplicationportal.com

All submissions must be original work that has not been previously published in part or in full. Only abstracts submitted to https://rsfjournal.onlineapplicationportal.com will be considered. Each paper will receive a $1,000 honorarium when the issue is published. The journal issue is being edited by by Fabian T. Pfeffer, Assistant Research Professor, Institute for Social Research and Robert F. Schoeni, Research Professor, Institute for Social Research, and Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of Michigan. All questions regarding this issue should be directed to Suzanne Nichols, Director of Publications, at journals@rsage.org and not to the email addresses of the editors of the special issue.

A conference will take place at RSF in New York City on October 30, 2015. The selected contributors will gather for a one-day workshop to present draft papers (due on 10/16/15, two weeks prior to the conference) and receive feedback from the other contributors and editors. Travel costs, food, and lodging will be covered by the foundation. Papers will be circulated before the conference. After the conference, the authors will submit their final drafts on or before January 8, 2016. The papers will then be sent out to two additional scholars for peer review. Having received feedback from reviewers and the RSF board, authors will revise their papers before April 15, 2016. The full and final issue will be published in the fall of 2016. Papers will be published open access on the RSF website as well as in several digital repositories, including JSTOR and UPCC/Muse.

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