A sixth cohort of postdoctoral scholars will join the Stone Center for two-year appointments that begin in September 2024. Zhexun Mo was selected for the position that focuses on global inequality, currently or historically, and economic inequality in China. Severin Rapp was selected for the position that focuses on wealth inequality.
Zhexun Mo is an economist whose research examines the intersection of political economics, development, and economic history. In particular, he explores inequalities in their multidimensional forms and their interactions with political forces over the long run, such as the repercussions of coercive inequalities engendered by conscription and forced labor in colonial French Africa. He also constructs historical national wealth balance sheets and works on the development of better measurement methods for income and wealth inequalities in East Asian countries over the long term. Mo is expected to receive his Ph.D. in Economics from the Paris School of Economics in July.
Severin Rapp is an economist who works on wealth inequality and intergenerational transfers. He is interested in improving the availability of evidence on the distribution of wealth and bequests, including by unearthing new data and creating tools to make data from different sources and countries comparable. In addition, he has researched the consequences of wealth inequality and behavioral economics. During his doctoral studies at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), Severin worked as an economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and as a consultant for various organizations, including the Austrian National Bank. He is expected to receive his Ph.D. from WU in Economics and Social Sciences in July.
“We are delighted that Zhexun Mo and Severin Rapp will join our team this fall,” said Janet Gornick, director of the Stone Center. “As always, our hope is to select postdocs who will contribute to our ongoing mix of research and, at the same time, introduce new lines of work. Zhexun will bring a great deal to the Stone Center, including his extensive experience studying consumption and income inequalities, redistributive preferences, and mobility in a range of East Asian countries, notably including China. Severin’s innovative work on wealth and wealth measurement — including research on household economies of scale and on subjective wealth distributions — will add value to the work of the GC Wealth Project team. Zhexun and Severin constitute our sixth cohort, bringing the total number of Stone Center postdocs so far to twelve.”
Mo and Rapp will join the Center’s fifth cohort of postdoctoral scholars, who started their two-year terms in September 2023: Max Longmuir, whose work combines topics in household finance, labor economics, and distributional economics, with a special focus on wealth inequality; and Meredith Slopen, who works at the intersection of labor policy and health, drawing on interdisciplinary methods from social work, public health, and economics to explore the workplace as a site of intervention to reduce inequality.
The Stone Center’s expansion of its postdoctoral scholars program is funded by a multi-year gift from the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation. The gift has allowed the Center to add two new postdocs a year since September 2019, in addition to other initiatives.
For a full list of the Stone Center’s current and former postdoctoral scholars, and more information about the program, see our Postdoctoral Scholars page.