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
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
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
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
11/27

Report: First-of-its-kind guaranteed income program in rural area improved financial, physical, and mental well-being
A report authored by SP2’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research shows connections between the receipt of unconditional cash and improved financial security and quality of life in a rural context.
Faculty & Research
10/05

Study: Increasing minimum wage has positive effects on employment
In labor markets where employers have more control over wages, increasing the minimum wage often results in a rise in employment, according to a new study coauthored by Dr. Ioana Marinescu, an associate professor at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) who is director of the SP2 Master of Science in Social Policy Program and currently working with the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Faculty & Research
09/26

24K Philadelphia addresses to receive survey from Philadelphia Economic Equity Project
As part of the Center for Public Service & Policy led by former Mayor of Philadelphia Michael A. Nutter at SP2, a survey from the Philadelphia Economic Equity Project (PEEP) will arrive in approximately 24,000 randomly selected city mailboxes.