Science Explorer Back to mapMap
Discussion
Topic · Sociology and Political Science

Income, Poverty, and Inequality

Income, Poverty, and Inequality is a research topic within Sociology and Political Science. Science Explorer counts 23k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the complex relationship between income inequality, poverty dynamics, and human development. It delves into various measurement approaches, including the capability approach, and examines the impact of economic growth, globalization, and social justice on wealth distribution. Additionally, it addresses multidimensional poverty and gender inequality.

  • Income Inequality
  • Poverty Measurement
  • Capability Approach
  • Human Development
  • Wealth Distribution
  • Globalization
  • Social Justice
  • Economic Growth
  • Multidimensional Poverty
  • Gender Inequality
Research works
23k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+6%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
24% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Income, Poverty, and Inequality

Which countries lead Income, Poverty, and Inequality research?

By volume, the United States and India publish the most (659 and 596 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 659 works
  2. 2 India 596 works
  3. 3 China 321 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 245 works
  5. 5 Brazil 234 works
  6. 6 Italy 213 works
  7. 7 Indonesia 138 works
  8. 8 Germany 131 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 113 works
  10. 10 Spain 110 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 23.9%India: 21.6%China: 11.6%United Kingdom: 8.9%6 others listed: 34.0%24%largest
United States659 · 23.9%India596 · 21.6%China321 · 11.6%United Kingdom245 · 8.9%6 others listed940 · 34.0%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Income, Poverty, and Inequality research?

By volume in 2022-now, Sapienza University of Rome publishes the most Income, Poverty, and Inequality research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and London School of Economics and Political Science.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 59 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 27 works
  3. 3 London School of Economics and Political ScienceUnited Kingdom 24 works
  4. 4 University of DelhiIndia 23 works
  5. 5 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 20 works
  6. 6 Tribhuvan UniversityNepal 19 works
  7. 7 Cornell UniversityUnited States 15 works
  8. 8 University of BolognaItaly 15 works
  9. 9 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 15 works
  10. 10 University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 15 works

Who are the leading researchers in Income, Poverty, and Inequality?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Income, Poverty, and Inequality include George Davey Smith, Donald B. Rubin and Martin McKee.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Donald B. Rubin United States 301k citations
  3. 3 Martin McKee United Kingdom 270k citations
  4. 4 John G.F. Cleland United Kingdom 198k citations
  5. 5 PAUL S. F. YIP China 196k citations
  6. 6 Sanjay Basu United States 193k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Income, Poverty, and Inequality?

The most cited paper in Income, Poverty, and Inequality is "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?" (M. Bertrand, Esther Duflo, Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004), with 10,904 citations. Next come "Corruption and Growth" (8,502) and "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments" (7,490).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates? M. Bertrand, Esther Duflo, Sendhil Mullainathan · The Quarterly Journal of Economics Open access Feb 2004 10,904
2 Corruption and Growth Paolo Mauro · The Quarterly Journal of Economics Aug 1995 8,502
3 Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments Douglas O. Staiger, James H. Stock · Econometrica May 1997 7,490
4 Bayesian Model Selection in Social Research Adrian E. Raftery · Sociological Methodology 1995 6,994
5 On the measurement of inequality Anthony Barnes Atkinson · Journal of Economic Theory Sep 1970 6,487
All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Income, Poverty, and Inequality research done?

The largest centres of Income, Poverty, and Inequality research in 2022-now are Rome (Italy), Beijing (China), Washington D.C. (United States) and New Delhi (India). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Bonn and Kathmandu.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 RomeItaly 93 works
  2. 2 BeijingChina 86 works
  3. 3 Washington D.C.United States 82 works
  4. 4 New DelhiIndia 78 works
  5. 5 LondonUnited Kingdom 78 works
  6. 6 New YorkUnited States 54 works
  7. 7 ParisFrance 39 works
  8. 8 São PauloBrazil 35 works
  9. 9 BengaluruIndia 35 works
  10. 10 MoscowRussia 34 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. BonnDE · 21.7 works6.6×
  2. KathmanduNP · 23.8 works5.9×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Income, Poverty, and Inequality than the world average.

See Income, Poverty, and Inequality on the map

Where is the best place to study Income, Poverty, and Inequality?

Among universities, judged by research, London School of Economics and Political Science, Sapienza University of Rome and University of Johannesburg score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 14.63%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Johann…London School of Eco…University of OxfordSapienza University …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1London School of Economics and Political ScienceUnited Kingdom 71.116.0%26.4×24 -1.2%
2Sapienza University of RomeItaly 68.710.6%13.1×59 +603.7%
3University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 66.420.4%6.2×15 +163.6%
4University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 59.313.9%3.7×20 -33.8%
5Cornell UniversityUnited States 55.714.9%3.0×15 +17.6%
6University of BathUnited Kingdom 52.813.9%10.7×10 +39.0%
7University College LondonUnited Kingdom 51.013.8%1.7×10 +6.2%
8University of BolognaItaly 50.610.5%4.7×15 +103.3%
9Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaSpain 48.715.1%4.3×11 +14.7%
10University of ManchesterUnited Kingdom 48.617.2%4.0×13 -22.4%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Income, Poverty, and Inequality, country by country

Is Income, Poverty, and Inequality research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 6% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Income, Poverty, and Inequality.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Income, Poverty, and Inequality as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.019% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Income, Poverty, and Inequality0.018% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Income, Poverty, and Inequality over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Income, Poverty, and Inequality10.6% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Questions people ask

Which institutions lead research on income inequality?

By volume in 2022-now, Sapienza University of Rome publishes the most Income, Poverty, and Inequality research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and London School of Economics and Political Science.

Which institutions lead Income, Poverty, and Inequality research?
All 1,273 questions in the Question Catalogue

Discussion

Ask a question or share a note about Income, Poverty, and Inequality. Posts are plain text and can be reported.