Supporting science-based approaches to understanding poverty and inequality
The Center has over 500 faculty affiliates and regularly hosts visiting scholars and fellows. These affiliates and fellows are engaged in core research on trends in poverty and inequality, the sources of poverty and inequality, the consequences of poverty and inequality, and the effects of policy initiatives on poverty and inequality. The Center provides small seed grants to faculty and student affiliates that allow them to carry out creative research and demonstration projects that will ultimately attract major federal and foundation monies. We regularly sponsor talks and conferences relevant to issues of poverty and inequality.
- New basic and policy research in 15 program areas
- Explore the research of our Stanford University affiliates
- Explore the research of our national and international fellows
- Explore our grants program
- Explore our conferences, workshops, and talks
Developing science-based policy
The Center is committed to evaluating and developing public policy relevant to poverty and inequality. In collaboration with Stanford University Press, the Center sponsors two book series, titled Studies in Inequality and The Big Questions, that expose looming policy decisions about poverty and inequality and develops innovative approaches to addressing them. We also publish a web and hardcopy magazine, titled Pathways, that asks the most prominent scholars in the field to weigh in on current policy issues on the basis of their research and scholarship.
- Explore the book series Studies in Inequality and The Big Questions
- Explore our policy magazine Pathways
Training the next generation of scholars, policy analysts, and politicians
The typical discipline-based training of students is becoming increasingly provincial as research in poverty and inequality takes on a more deeply interdisciplinary cast. Although contemporary scholarship and policy analysis is now almost routinely interdisciplinary, most training remains rooted in single disciplines and fails to prepare future scholars and policy analysts well. The Center sponsors interdisciplinary programs at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
- Learn more about the undergraduate certificate on poverty and inequality
Disseminating data, research, and policy analysis
The CPI offers an archive of customized trend data, sponsors the Studies In Inequality and The Big Questions series, and publishes Pathways magazine.
- Enroll in our free online course
- Explore our video archive
- Explore our original podcast series
- Learn more about the Collaboration for Poverty Research
Monitoring trends in poverty and inequality
The Center serves as a clearing house for high-quality trend data on poverty and inequality. The development of a comprehensive social indicator system for poverty and inequality will, we hope, prove to be a useful step in furthering science-based policy on poverty and inequality, just as a comprehensive system of economic indicators has been crucial in developing science-based strategies for manipulating economic outcomes. The Center offers a unique and powerful archive of trend data that allows users to customize time series of interest.
- Explore our archive of customizable trend data
- Read about the CPI initiative to build a new administrative data infrastructure