The World Inequality Lab is organizing the third edition of the World Inequality Conference, to be held at the Paris School of Economics on June 4-6, 2026.

Objectives

The conference will be structured around three pillars:

1. Release of the Global Justice Report: The report will explore what a just distribution of socioeconomic and environmental resources could look like at the global level from 2026 to 2100 – both between and within countries – in a way that is compatible with planetary boundaries.

2. Keynote Sessions: Speakers will include academics, policymakers and writers.

3. Paper Presentations: Accepted submissions will be organized into parallel theme-wise sessions.

Call for Papers

We welcome submissions of papers on inequality (broadly defined), with a focus on the key research areas covered by the World Inequality Lab, namely:

• Measurement of historical income and wealth dynamics
• Environmental inequalities
• Global wealth distribution dynamics
• Factors contributing to income and wealth inequality
• Political inequalities
• Gender inequality
• Inequality perceptions
• Taxation and tax evasion
• Methodological advances in the measurement of inequalities

Update (December 4): The submission process is now closed and we will not be accepting any more requests.

Update (February 16): The Scientific Committee has selection 235 publications out of the 767 recieved. 

Important Dates:

• Submission Deadline: 1^st December 2025
• Notification of Decisions: 15^th February 2026
• Registration Open: 15^th February 2026
• Registration Deadline: 1^st April 2026
• Public Release of Programme: 15^th April 2026

Scientific Committee: All submissions will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee comprising of Luis Bauluz, Nitin Bharti, Lucas Chancel, Jonas Dietrich, Matthew Fisher-Post, Ignacio Flores (Co-Chair), Valentina Gabrielli, Amory Gethin, Ricardo Gómez-Carrera, Romaine Loubes, Clara Martínez Toledano, Cornelia Mohren, Rowaida Moshrif, Gastón Nievas, Moritz Odersky, Thomas Piketty, Anmol Somanchi (Co-Chair).

Registration

• For accepted papers: Deadline is April 1, 2026
• Conference programme: To be announced on April 15, 2026
• General public registration: Opens April 15, 2026 | Closes May 15, 2026

Admissions

Registration to the conference and attendance are fully free of charge. Most researchers are expected to finance their own travel and accommodation. A limited number of grants will be made available for young researchers registered at institutions in lower- and middle-income countries. Please make sure to indicate a request for financial assistance in the submission form. Depending upon circumstances, it may not be possible to accept all such requests.

Organization Committee: The overall organization of the conference will be coordinated by an organization committee comprising of Thomas Cessou, Lucas Chancel (Co-Chair), Jonas Dietrich, Alice Fauvel (Co-Chair), Cornelia Mohren, Rowaida Moshrif, Moritz Odersky, Thomas Piketty, Anmol Somanchi (Co-Chair) and Delia Visan.

Contact

Plenary sessions and most side-sessions will be organized by the WIL. External organizations interested in hosting a side-session are invited to send a brief session outline proposal by 1 December to conference[at]wid.world. Availability is limited, and requests will be considered based on relevance and space.

For any questions, please email conference[at]wid.world.

Partners

 

International taxation is no longer just a technical issue – it sits at the center of trade wars, great-power politics, and the global push for economic fairness.

This conference will provide a high-level discussion bringing together ICRICT Commissioners, policymakers, academics, and civil society leaders to explore:

• How U.S. trade threats target digital taxes and the global minimum tax.
• The risks unilateral measures pose for multilateral tax reform.
• What’s at stake in the UN Framework Tax Convention negotiations.
• Concrete pathways toward a fairer international tax system.

 

Panel 1: Who Shapes the Rules? Trade Wars, Tax Battles and the Future of Global Governance – 50 mins

Moderator: Victor Goury-Laffont, Politico

• Joseph Stiglitz, ICRICT Co-Chair
• Manon Aubry, member of European Parliament
• Valérie Hayer, member of European Parliament and President of Renew Europe

 

 

Panel 2: Negotiating the details: Key elements of the Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation – 45 min

Moderator: Quentin Parrinello (EUTO)

• Jose Antonio Ocampo, ICRICT Commissioner (opportunities for Latin America with the Convention and example of measures taken by Colombia’s tax reform) – confirmed
• Ryad Selmani, CCFD Terre Solidaire (What comes next in negotiations of protocols and Convention. Role of French government) – confirmed
• Tove Ryding, Eurodad (What comes next in negotiations of protocols and Convention, Role of EU, European countries) – confirmed
• Wanda Montero, UN committee of experts on international cooperation in tax matters

On the occasion of the release of Lucas Chancel’s new book, Energy and Inequalities: A Political History, the World Inequality Lab organized a debate with the author as part of the Equality Debates, on Thursday, October 9, 2025.

 

Program

• 6:00–6:30 pm: Presentation by Lucas Chancel
• 6:30–7:00 pm: Q&A with the audience
• 7:00 pm: Book sale and signing

Summary
 For millennia, the use of energy has shaped human societies, structuring their hierarchies and power relations. Its mastery has been both a vehicle of emancipation and a tool of domination. Ownership of energy resources and infrastructure has been the ground of social, political, and geostrategic struggles. Depending on who controls energy, radically different societal choices can emerge.

By bringing together findings from economic history, archaeology, and climate science, Lucas Chancel shows how, over the long term, the technical and political frameworks that determine energy use intertwine with the distribution of wealth between individuals, social groups, and nations.

This book advocates for an ecological transition grounded in the collective reappropriation of energy. Drawing on wealth redistribution experiences from the past century, it outlines an alternative to ecological disaster and extreme inequalities through the development of new forms of public and participatory ownership in the 21st century.

Lucas Chancel is a professor at Sciences Po Paris, within the Center for Research on Social Inequalities, and co-director of the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics.

Practical information

 

This event is part of the Equality Debates, a series of discussions organized by the World Inequality Lab around a recently published book or social science research, offering authors and audiences the chance to exchange ideas. To receive invitations, click here.

Contact
Alice Fauvel, Communications Manager, World Inequality Lab: alice.fauvel[at]psemail.eu

The World Inequality Lab, in partnership with the Centre Asie du Sud-Est, and the CNRS, is organizing a workshop entitled “Inequality and Labour Income Share in Southeast Asia” on June, 12, 2025.

To mark the publication of Arnaud Orain‘s new book, Le Monde Confisqué, Essai sur le Capitalisme de la Finitude (XVIe-XXIe siècle), the World Inequality Lab invites you to an Equality Debate, on Monday 16 June 2025 at 12.30pm, at Paris School of Economics. The event will be in French.

Programme

• 12.30-13.00: Presentation by Arnaud Orain
• 13.00-13.15: Questions/Reactions from Thomas Piketty & Lucas Chancel, co-directors of the WIL
• 13.15-13.30: Q&A with the public
• 13.30: Book sale and signing sessions

 

Summary

The neoliberal utopia of continuous global growth in wealth is now behind us. But this does not mean that capitalism is dead. Its current form is neither genuinely new nor totally unfamiliar, as it is typical of all ages in which the anguishing feeling of a “finite”, bounded and limited world that needs to be grabbed in a hurry dominates. This capitalism is characterised by the privatisation and militarisation of the seas, a monopolistic and rentier “trade” that is exercised within territorial empires, and the appropriation of physical and cyber spaces by gigantic private companies with sovereign prerogatives that dictate their own rhythms. In this essay, Arnaud Orain reveals this “capitalism of finitude” and sheds light on its mechanisms in the three periods in which it flourished: XVIᵉ – XVIIIᵉ century, 1880-1945, 2010 to the present day.

Arnaud Orain, an economist and historian, is director of studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Centre de Recherches Historiques). He is the author of numerous books, including Les savoirs perdus de l’économie. Contribution à l’équilibre du vivant (Gallimard 2023).

 

Practical information

📅 Monday 16 June, 12.30-13.30 (Paris time)

📍 Amphithéâtre Daniel Cohen, Paris School of Economics, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, Paris 14

🎙️ The event will be held in French.

📝 To register, click here.

This event is part of the Equality Debates, a cycle of meetings organised by the World Inequality Lab around a recently published book or work in the social sciences, which allow authors and the public to exchange views. To receive invitations, click here.

 

Bina Agarwal, co-winner of the 2024 Global Inequality Research Award (GiRA), received her prize and gave a lecture at Paris School of Economics on March 19, 2025.

 

The GiRA aims to recognize researchers from all disciplines who have made a significant contribution to the understanding of global inequalities.

30 years after the publication of A Field of One’s Own (CUP 1994), the first GiRA was awarded to Bina Agarwal for her major work on gender inequalities, environmental governance, feminist environmentalism and environmental inequalities.

 

Programme

• 18:00 Introduction by Lucas Chancel
• 18:05 Award presentation by Thomas Piketty
• 18:15 Lecture by Bina Agarwal “Hidden inequalities, Visible outcomes: A Gender Lens”
• 19:00 Q&A
• 19:30 Closing

 

Biography

Bina Agarwal is Professor of Development Economics and Environment at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. She was earlier Director and Professor, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, where she is still affiliated.

She has been President, International Society for Ecological Economics; President, International Association for Feminist Economics; Vice-President, International Economic Association; and held distinguished visiting positions at Harvard, Princeton, and Cambridge, among other universities.

Agarwal’s books and academic papers cover diverse subjects in agriculture, environmental change, land rights and law, especially from a gender and political economy perspective. Her writings on gender inequality in property and on environmental governance have had global impact. Among her notable books are the award-winning, A Field of One’s Own (CUP 1994); Gender and Green Governance (OUP, 2010); and Gender Challenges (OUP, 2016), a three volume compendium of her selected papers. In 2005 she also led a successful civil society campaign to make the Hindu Inheritance law gender equal.

Agarwal’s many awards include a Padma Shri in 2008, from the President of India; three book prizes; the 2010 Leontief Prize, USA for ‘advancing the frontiers of economic thought’; the 2017 Louis Malassis International Scientist Prize, France, for “a distinguished career in agricultural economics”; the International Balzan Prize 2017 “for challenging established premises in economics and the social sciences by using an innovative gender perspective”; the Kenneth Boulding award in Ecological Economics 2023; and the first Global Inequality Research Award, 2024, France.

 

Contact

Alice Fauvel, Communications Manager: alice.fauvel[at]psemail.eu

The Taxing Billionaires conference will take place on Tuesday April 8th and Wednesday April 9th at Paris School of Economics. It will bring together leading researchers, including Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman, and policymakers to advance the discussion on the effective taxation of the super-rich. Over two days, participants will explore methodologies, share research insights, and discuss coordinated policy solutions. This event aims to address the issue of effective tax rates for the super-rich, with a focus on fostering collaboration and actionable insights across the academic, legal and policy communities.

The conference is organized by the PSE Stone Center in collaboration with the EU Tax Observatory, the World Inequality Lab, and the Institut des Politiques Publiques.

Programme

The programme will be published in February here. It will be divided in 2 parts:

• Day 1: Strengthening Research Collaboration
• Day 2: Policy & Legal Perspectives

 

Practical information

📍 Amphitheatre Daniel Cohen, Paris School of Economics, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, Paris 14e (in person, no livestream).

🎙 The conference will be held in English.

🖊️ To register, click here.

On Thursday 30 January 2025,  the World Inequality Lab invited George Monbiot to present and discuss his latest book The Invisible Doctrine: The SeEqualitcret History of Neoliberalism (& How it Came to Control Your Life), with Thomas Piketty, at Paris School of Economics.

 

BOOK SUMMARY

Neoliberalism. Do you know what it is? We live under an ideology that preys on every aspect of our lives: our education and our jobs; our healthcare and our leisure; our relationships and our mental wellbeing; the planet we inhabit – the very air we breathe. So pervasive has it become that, for most people, it has no name. It seems unavoidable, like a natural law.
But trace it back to its roots, and we discover that it is neither inevitable nor immutable. It was conceived, propagated, and then concealed by the powerful few. Our task is to bring it into the light—and to build a new system that is worth fighting for.

George Monbiot a British journalist, author, and environmental and political activist.

Peter Hutchison is a critically acclaimed filmmaker, NY Times bestselling author, educator and activist.

 

 

 

 

This event was part of the Equality Debates series organized by the World Inequality Lab. Equality Debates feature the presentation of new research around the theme of equality and inequality, followed by a discussion with the audience.

 

CONTACT

Alice Fauvel, Communications Manager: alice.fauvel[at]psemail.eu

The World Inequality Database provides open access to the most extensive available database on the historical evolution of the world distribution of income and wealth, both within countries and between countries. Updated annually by the WIL team and a global network of researchers, it represents the most current and coordinated effort to measure and track inequality worldwide.

On Tuesday, November 19, we hosted a webinar where our team presented the latest data and insights from the World Inequality Database.

 

WEBINAR PROGRAM

16:30-16:50 – Presentation of global trends, Co-directors Lucas Chancel, Rowaida Moshrif, and Thomas Piketty
16:50-17:20 – Zoom on regional inequalities, WIL coordinators
17:20-18:00 – Q&A Session

 

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

📅Date: Tuesday, November 19, 16:30 – 18:00pm CET

📍Location: Zoom.

🎙Language: The webinar will be held in English.

 

CONTACT

Alice Fauvel, Communications Manager, World Inequality Lab : alice.fauvel[at]psemail.eu

 

On the occasion of the release of Benjamin Lemoine’s new book, Chasseurs d’États, Les fonds vautours et la loi de New York à l’assaut de la souveraineté, the World Inequality Lab organized an online event as part of the “Equality Debates” series, on Thursday, December 5, 2024, at 12:30 p.m. The event was held in French.

Programme

• 12h30-13h00 : Présentation de Benjamin Lemoine
• 13h00-13h10 : Réactions de Thomas Piketty et Lucas Chancel, co-directeurs du WIL
• 13h10-13h30 : Questions-Réponses avec le public

 

Résumé

Chasseurs d’Etats est le fruit d’une enquête exceptionnelle sur les professionnels de la poursuite de la souveraineté – juges, avocats, enquêteurs et chasseurs d’actifs, mais aussi hauts fonctionnaires –, dont le foyer d’action est situé dans les tribunaux de New York. L’auteur raconte comment il est devenu possible d’engager des procès contre les États qui, émancipés du joug colonial, nationalisaient leur appareil productif et expropriaient les investisseurs états-uniens. La diplomatie économique des États-Unis, main dans la main avec les marchés de capitaux, a veillé à défaire les alternatives promues par les pays du Sud global et à construire le droit de New York comme l’étalon mondial des deals et litiges financiers.

Benjamin Lemoine est sociologue, chercheur au CNRS et au centre Maurice Halbwachs (École normale supérieure de Paris). Sa thèse a été primée par l’Association française de science politique. Il a obtenu en 2018 la médaille de bronze du CNRS. Il a publié L’ordre de la dette (2016, 2022) et La démocratie disciplinée par la dette (2022) aux éditions La Découverte.

 

Informations pratiques

📅 Jeudi 5 décembre 2023, 12h30-13h30 (heure de Paris)

📍 >>> Zoom, pour vous inscrire, cliquez ici <<<

🎙️L’événement se tiendra en ligne et en français.

Cet événement fait partie des Débats de l’Egalité, un cycle de rencontres organisées par le World Inequality Lab autour d’un livre récemment publié ou de travaux en sciences sociales, qui permettent aux auteur.e.s et au public d’échanger. Pour recevoir les invitations, cliquez ici.

 

Contact

Alice Fauvel, responsable de la communication, World Inequality Lab : alice.fauvel[at]psemail.eu