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
FEATURED FACULTY
Femida Handy, PhD
Professor; PhD, York (Canada), 1995. Volunteering; volunteering & health; global philanthropy; corporate social responsibility; environmental habitus.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Faculty & Research
02/13
Groundbreaking experiments with guaranteed income for formerly incarcerated individuals show promising results
Research from the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) reveals the profound potential of guaranteed income for individuals reentering communities after incarceration.
Faculty & Research
01/22
SP2 researchers receive awards and recognition at SSWR 2025 Annual Conference
Following the 2025 Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work and Research, SP2 is celebrating recipients who were recognized at the annual awards presentation and a faculty member who has reached a significant milestone.
Faculty & Research
07/30
Report: Landmark guaranteed income program in City of Los Angeles produces “overwhelmingly positive” results
Groundbreaking study demonstrates impact of direct cash over a 12-month period, showing increased ability of recipients to exit intimate partner violence, decreased food insecurity, and improved quality of life across a number of additional domains.