Integrating Normative Considerations into Inequality Measurement
Social scientists, statisticians and philosophers explore the links between inequality measures and ethical questions of fairness.
Categories
Conference | One-Time Event
Location
The Sky Suite at The Keller Center, Harris School of Public Policy, 1307 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637
Organizers
Steven Durlauf, Felix Elwert
Featured Speakers
Elias Bareinboim, Sam Bowles, Harry Brighouse, Wendy Carlin, Steven Durlauf, Felix Elwert, Francisco Ferreira, Joseph Fishkin, John Jackson, Abigail Jacobs, Max Greenberg, Bhash Mazumder, Gina Schouten, Michael Sobel, Naftali Weinberger, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, Thomas Lemieux
Research Areas
Methodology, Mobility, Health, Wealth
This conference is designed to stimulate connections between various measures of inequality, disparity, and discrimination, be they the correlation of parent and child incomes, the variance of wages across workers, or group differences between outcomes, and with ethical considerations of the fairness of opportunities or rewards. As such, we are bringing together social scientists, statisticians, and philosophers.
Participation is by invitation only.
Schedule
Thursday, December 11, 2025
| Start Time | End Time | Session | Presenter |
| 8:30 a.m. | 9:00 a.m. | Breakfast and Registration | |
| 9:00 a.m. | 9:10 a.m. | Opening Remarks | |
| 9:10 a.m. | 10:00 a.m. |
The Target Study: A Conceptual Model and Framework for Measuring Disparity |
John Jackson |
| 10:00 a.m. | 10:50 a.m. |
Normative Choice Points in Causally Modeling Discrimination |
Naftali Weinberger |
| 10:50 a.m. | 11:05 a.m. | Coffee Break | |
| 11:05 a.m. | 11:55 a.m. | Towards Causal Artificial Intelligence | Elias Bareinboim |
| 11:55 a.m. | 12:30 p.m. | Distributional Group Inequality: Using Optimal Transport to Measure Inequality between Groups | |
| 12:30 p.m. | 1:30 p.m. | Lunch | |
| 1:30 p.m | 2:20 p.m. |
Inherited Inequality, Meritocracy, and the Purpose of Economic Growth |
Francisco Ferrreira |
| 2:20 p.m | 3:10 p.m. |
Unions, Firms, and Wage Dispersion |
Thomas Lemieux |
| 3:10 p.m. | 3:25 p.m. | Coffee Break | |
| 3:25 p.m. | 4:15 p.m. | Fair Inequality | |
| 4:15 p.m. | 5:05 p.m. | Bottlenecks and their Potential Implications for How to Study and Think About Inequality | Joseph Fishkin |
| 6:30 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | Private Conference Dinner |
|
Friday, December 12, 2025
| Start Time | End Time | Session | Presenter |
| 8:30 a.m. | 9:00 a.m. | Breakfast | |
| 9:00 a.m. | 9:50 a.m. | One Stochastic Process to Rule Them All: Characterizing Bottlenecks in Intergenerational Mobility via Markov Chains. | Steven Durlauf |
| 9:50 a.m. | 10:40 a.m. | The Production of Health from Cradle to Grave: Evidence from Sweden | Bhash Mazumder |
| 10:40 a.m. | 11:00 a.m. |
Coffee Break |
|
| 11:00 a.m. | 11:50 a.m. |
Three Ways of Understanding Black-White Mortality Inequalities in the US |
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field |
| 11:50 a.m. | 1:00 p.m. | Panel Discussion | |
| 1:00 p.m. | 1:00 p.m. | Boxed Lunches Available To Go |