
Fabian Pfeffer
Associate Professor and Department Associate Chair, Department of Sociology; Research Associate Professor, Institute for Social Research; Co-Investigator, Panel Study of Income Dynamics; Faculty Affiliate, Population Studies Center; Faculty Affiliate, Center on the Demography of Aging
Fabian Pfeffer’s research focuses on the intergenerational transmission of economic disadvantage and advantage. His work expands classical investigations of social mobility and poverty transmission in several important ways: It assesses the persistence of poverty and socio-economic advantage across several, not just two, generations. Furthermore, his work investigates wealth and assets as important aspects of economic well-being, besides and independent from income. Pfeffer also contributes, as a co-Investigator of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), to the improvement of the data infrastructure available for the assessment of poverty, its effects, and its persistence across generations. His work appears in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, the Annual Review of Sociology, and other outlets, has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Academy of Education, the Russell Sage Foundation, and others, and has been covered by the New York Times, Associated Press, Time Magazine, and others.
Ph.D. and M.S. University of Wisconsin, Madison
Key Issues
Faculty Projects
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Charting How Wealth Shapes Educational Pathways from Childhood to Early Adulthood: A Developmental Process Model The project: Wealth plays a pervasive and pernicious role in transmitting inequality. Wealth (assets like savings and financial holdings such as housing) differs from income (wages, salaries, and cash assistance from the government) and is generally more unequally distributed than income. This contributes to widening social inequality, including impacts on educational attainment. Wealth demonstrably impacts youth […]