Stone Centre at UCL
Welcome to the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre on Wealth Concentration, Inequality, and the Economy at University College London.
Featured education materials
The Economy 2.0 is a complete introduction to economics and the economy. It's student-centred and motivated by real-world problems and real-world data. And it's free for everyone! Read now.
Latest featured research
This study measures spending power inequality within age cohorts and estimates fiscal progressivity via lifetime net tax rates. We find, first, that inequality in income and especially wealth dramatically overstates inequality in spending power. Second, inequality in current spending power differs from that in lifetime spending power because of credit constraints, in-kind government benefits, and other factors. Third, the US fiscal system is highly progressive once cohorts are old enough to have highly dispersed human wealth. Fourth, households’ rankings based on current income can differ substantially from their rankings based on lifetime resources. Fifth, current-year net tax rates substantially understate fiscal progressivity.
Using detailed household-level data from Malawi on physical quantities of agricultural outputs and inputs, we measure farm total factor productivity (TFP), controlling for land quality, rain, and transitory shocks. We find that operated land size and capital are essentially unrelated to farm TFP, implying substantial factor misallocation. The agricultural output gain from a reallocation of factors to their efficient use among existing farmers is a factor between 1.7- and 2.8-fold. We provide suggestive evidence connecting misallocation with the extent of land markets and illustrate how an efficient allocation via rental markets can substantially reduce agricultural income inequality and poverty.
Featured videos
Stone Centre Symposium
Watch the talks delivered at the Stone Centre Symposium 2024.
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Career structures in economics
An all-day event to discuss how to address the lack of diversity in academia.
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Methodology in Economic Analysis
At the 2023 IEA World Congress, Co-director Wendy Carlin joined a panel on Methodology in Economic Analysis.
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"Female labour supply and the macroeconomy"
"Female labour supply and the macroeconomy" is an extra, free data-analysis project in CORE Econ's Doing Economics.
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The CEPR-Stone Centre workshop on housing, wealth and taxation
This joint workshop includes a keynote by Joel Slemrod (University of Michigan) on '(How) Should We Tax the Rich More?'
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Watch the 2023 Royal Economic Society Annual Public Lecture
"Capitalism, colonies, and carbon – looking back and looking forward", delivered by Co-director Wendy Carlin.
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Gaurav Khatri presents his Stone Centre Explore Econ prize paper
Gaurav's paper studies the effects of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar on low-skilled wages in the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh.
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Matias Mäkiranta presents his Stone Centre Explore Econ prize paper
Matias' paper studies the effect of greater labour market concentration on wages using data on online vacancies from Germany.
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Stone Public Lecture, by Philippe Aghion
Philippe Aghion delivered the Stone Public Lecture "Rethinking capitalism to make it more innovative and more inclusive".
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Wendy Carlin presents the Stone Centre at UCL
Co-director Wendy Carlin presents the Stone Centre at UCL and its connection with CORE Econ.
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Wendy Carlin's contribution at the Stone Centre launch
Co-director Wendy Carlin highlighted the connection between wealth inequality and risk-taking. Watch her contribution in this video.
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Imran Rasul's opening remarks at the Stone Centre launch
Imran Rasul opened the launch event of the Stone Centre at UCL. You can watch his opening remarks in this video.
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The Stone Centre at UCL launches in Westminster
The Stone Centre at UCL was launched on 26 May 2022 in London. You can now watch the full recording of the event.
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Latest news and blogs
Five PhD students from the UCL Department of Economics have been appointed Stone PhD Scholars. Find out more about their research and the Stone PhD Scholarship scheme.
Pedro Carneiro, Jonas Hjort, Marta Morazzoni and Gabriel Ulyssea, from the UCL Department of Economics, have received a Stone Centre internal research support grants.