Annual Geary Lecture 2026 - Status Mobility in China: Past and Present

Steven N. Durlauf Professor and Director of the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility at the University of Chicagowill deliver a talk at the ESRI titled "Status Mobility in China: Past and Present". This talk will describe intergenerational mobility in China for two distinct epochs: the last 120 years of the Qing Dynasty and the last 30 years for modern China using some new ways to characterize mobility using Markov Chains. These new approaches will facilitate understanding transitional versus long run mobility patterns for the two periods. 

The Geary Lecture is organised each year to honour Dr R. C. Geary (1896 –1983), the first Director of the ESRI. Lectures have been given by some of the world’s foremost economics, statistics and sociology scholars, including several Nobel Prize winners. 

Steven N. Durlauf is the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor and Director of the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility at the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy. Durlauf's research spans a range of topics in economics. His most important substantive contributions involve the areas of poverty, inequality and economic growth. His methodological work includes both economic theory and econometrics.