Brian Nolan

Brian Nolan was the director of INET’s research program on Economics, Inequality and Opportunity (formerly Employment, Equity and Growth) and a Professor of Social Policy at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention from 2014 to 2024. He is currently a Professorial Research Fellow Emeritus at INET and a Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College Oxford. He coedited The Handbook of Economic Inequality (2008), The Great Recession and the Distribution of Household Income (2013), Changing Inequalities in Rich Countries: Analytical and Comparative Perspectives (2014), Changing Inequalities and Societal Impacts in Rich Countries: Thirty Countries’ Experiences (2014), and Children of Austerity: The Impact of the Great Recession on Child Poverty in Rich Countries (2017), and with Christopher T. Whelan coauthored Poverty and Deprivation in Europe (2011), all published by Oxford University Press.

The initial phase of inequality-focused research program at INET sought to understand why current growth models are failing those on middle and lower incomes in many developed countries, and what policies may help to promote better, fairer growth. Research carried out by the group with the support of the Resolution Foundation was brought together in two volumes Nolan edited, published by Oxford University Press in 2018: Inequality and Inclusive Growth in Rich Countries: Shared Challenges, and Contrasting Fortunes and Generating Prosperity for Working Families in Affluent Countries.

Nolan directed the Oxford Martin Program on Inequality and Prosperity from 2016 to 2021, supported by Citi as part of its research partnership with the Oxford Martin School and focused on the drivers of inequality and how best to address it and promote inclusive growth. Nolan was also the principal investigator on a project funded by the Nuffield Foundation from 2017 to 2019 on the intergenerational transmission of family wealth. Up to his retirement from the University at the end September 2024, Nolan was the Oxford PI on the ongoing multiyear research program supported by a Synergy Grant from the European Research Council for Towards Distributional National Accounts, in collaboration with Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.