August 6, 2025
The Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality is seeking applicants for an eighth cohort of postdoctoral scholars. These full-time, two-year positions will begin in August 2026.
The Stone Center is an official research center within the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The Center’s postdoctoral program enables scholars with a recent Ph.D. to spend two years producing empirical research on topics related to socio-economic inequality, focusing on the U.S., other countries, or cross-country comparisons. This research will contribute to the growing national and international conversations on socio-economic inequality, social mobility, and feasible strategies for furthering fair, effective, and efficient policy and institutional change. The scholars will have the CUNY title of Research Associate.
Applications are due by November 3, 2025.
This year’s call requests applications for two different positions. Qualified applicants may apply to both.
The first position is open to candidates who conduct research on wealth and/or wealth inequality. This postdoctoral scholar will join the GC Wealth Project team, an international group of researchers. Priority will be given to candidates who conduct research in the following areas:
- Distribution of wealth, wealth inequality, and/or wealth concentration
- Intergroup wealth disparities (e.g., by gender, race, ethnicity, migration status)
- Intersection of wealth inequality, climate policies, and climate crisis
- Determinants (including public policies) and consequences of wealth concentration
- Estate, inheritance, gift, and wealth taxation, and/or other policies that shape wealth accumulation and wealth transfers; behavioral responses to taxation; and revenue analysis.
See the full description and application for this position: Job ID 30453.
The second position is for a postdoctoral scholar who will conduct research on intergenerational mobility and poverty. This postdoctoral scholar will work directly with Professor Miles Corak on a cross-national project related to child poverty and poverty measurement in rich countries, and will have the opportunity to work individually on their own projects. Priority will be given to candidates carrying out quantitative, empirical research on one or both of the following:
- Measurement of poverty and well-being
- Public policy directed to child poverty and well-being
See the full description and application for this position: Job ID 30454.
CUNY encourages people with disabilities, minorities, veterans, and women to apply.
Each scholar will receive an annual salary of $90,000 and benefits that include health insurance provided by CUNY. In addition, scholars will have access to funding for research-related expenditures. The work of the Stone Center, including the postdoctoral program, is supported by a generous gift from the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation.
Applicants should have:
- For the first position (wealth), applicants should have a Ph.D. degree in economics, sociology, political science, demography, public policy, or a related social science discipline. For the second (mobility, poverty), applicants should have a Ph.D. degree in economics, with a specialization in labor economics, public economics, or applied econometrics, or a Ph.D. in a related social science discipline
- Applicants must have completed their Ph.D. no more than seven years prior to the application date, and must have their Ph.D. awarded by August 2026
- Research portfolio demonstrating interest in and experience with relevant empirical, methodological, or theoretical scholarship on inequality, with a focus on the content areas noted above
- High level of technical skill, expertise in a range of quantitative methods, and experience with complex data sets
- Experience with communicating research findings in a way that is relevant to the public.
