Understanding Inequalities: new thinking for public policy

We are witnessing increasing divisions in society whereby health gains for some are not shared by others; where social mobility is falling; and where the pay gap between ordinary workers and corporate leaders has grown exponentially. Inequality is now a mainstream political issue. What does current research bring to our understanding of how inequality shapes our economy and society? What do the public think about inequality? Can research provide evidence of interventions to reduce inequalities?

Inequality is one of the research themes identified by the Public Policy Strategic Research Initiative (SRI). The group included Professor Theresa Marteau, Professor Simon Szreter, Professor David Howarth, Professor Simon Deakin and Dr Charlotte Sausman who began discussing the question of public attitudes to inequality, and how attitudes changed across different types of inequality. Several of the group had already attended the Rustat Conference on Inequality, held in Cambridge in March 2015 , and were keen to build on the discussions held there. Through the YouGov Cambridge programme, we engaged YouGov to carry out some polling on current attitudes to inequalities.

Image courtesy of Shreyans Bhansali from Flickr Creative Commons