AREAS OF RESEARCH

Economic Security

SP2’s Centers and Faculty demonstrate the School’s expertise in income inequality, economic mobility, universal basic income, and the labor market impact of public policies.

Featured Centers

Center for Guaranteed Income Research

Center for Social Mobility and Prosperity

Femida Handy

FEATURED FACULTY

Femida Handy, PhD

Professor; PhD, York (Canada), 1995. Volunteering; volunteering & health; global philanthropy; corporate social responsibility; environmental habitus.

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FEATURED FACULTY

Ioana E. Marinescu, PhD

Associate Professor; PhD, London School of Economics, 2007. Imperfect competition in the labor market, antitrust, and competition policy as applied to the labor market; evaluation of the labor market impact of public policies, e.g. unemployment insurance and the minimum wage; unconditional cash transfers, the universal basic income; technology and structural changes in the labor market; green jobs.

Penn Sp2 Headshots March 2024

FEATURED FACULTY

Amy Beth Castro, PhD

Assistant Professor; PhD, CUNY Hunter, 2014. Economic mobility; guaranteed income; innovation; how social policies produce gender and race disparities in housing and lending.

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FEATURED FACULTY

Meredith Doherty, PhD, LCSW

Assistant Professor; PhD, Graduate Center of CUNY. Financial burden of serious illness; cancer disparities; access to healthcare; healthcare-based social needs interventions; palliative care and oncology social work; dissemination and implementation science.

Penn Sp2 Headshots March 2024

FEATURED FACULTY

ChiaKo Hung, MA, MPA, PhD

Assistant Professor; PhD, Arizona State University. Nonprofit financial management, social entrepreneurship, philanthropy, fundraising management, collaborative governance, social equity, social impact.

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FEATURED FACULTY

Alice Xu, PhD

Assistant Professor; PhD, Harvard University. Inequality and social policy, urban and distributive politics, environmental politics, quantitative and spatial methods, Latin America, Global South.

Related News

Panelists speak at Politics Of Well Being Economics event

Breaking down misconceptions on unconditional cash programs

As part of the Politics of Well-Being series, associate professors Amy Castro and Ioana Marinescu shared findings from their research on guaranteed income and universal basic income.

Headshots of Konrad Kording and Ioana Marinescu

How might AI shape the future of work?

Computer scientist Konrad Kording and economist Ioana Marinescu have developed an interactive model that incorporates assumptions from both their fields to predict how AI will affect wages, jobs, and the overall economy. 

Newark skyline

Report: Newark guaranteed income pilot shows positive financial, health, family, and housing impacts 

New research from the Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) offers insight into the efficacy of different forms of unconditional cash transfers and reveals the positive impact of guaranteed income on low-income families in Newark, NJ.