Events

Abstract: This presentation examines how early-life exposures contribute to intergenerational inequality Drawing on quasi-experimental evidence from four cases it reveals the multiple pathways through which early-life shocks shape health, cognition, and education across the life course. The findings underscore that inequality arises not only from unequal exposure to adversity but also from unequal sensitivity, survival, and compensatory responses across social groups.   Yet despite the growing sophistication of causal inference, much of what we know rests on historically specific events, fragile identification assumptions, and a publication ecosystem biased toward significant, inequality-confirming results. The result is a partial and often self-affirming body of work. I argue that a better understanding requires collective, transparent inquiry, one that values null, uncomfortable, and mechanism-challenging findings as much as confirmatory ones.

The Sociology Seminar Series for Trinity Term is convened by Jan O Jonsson, Ridhi Kashyap, Colin Mills and Christiaan Monden.  For more information about this or any of the seminars in the series, please contact sociology.secretary@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.