From January 7 to 10, 2025, the 18th edition of the Winter School for PhD students on "Inequality and Social Welfare Theory" took place at the Alba di Canazei campus of the University of Verona. The Winter School has reached "adulthood," and on this occasion, the event has grown to its historical peak. The 2025 edition involved over 90 international researchers, including more than 50 junior participants (PhD students, post-docs, researchers at universities and research institutes) and 27 senior contributors who participated in the program as chairs, speakers, and lab assistants.

The Winter School is the result of scientific and organizational collaboration between the Department of Economics at the University of Verona, CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute at the University of Munich, Germany), and LISER (Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research), in partnership with CY Cergy-Paris University, University of Antwerp AIPRIL Centre of Excellence, CEE-M Research Institute - University of Montpellier, the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics, LIS (Luxembourg Income Study), University of Bari, University of Rome "La Sapienza," and The Society for the Study of Economic Inequality (ECINEQ). This year, the school also benefited from organizational support from the European Social Science Genetics Network (ESSGN) and the World Bank Group, with specific focus on the impact of genetics and global poverty. Participation in the school is open to students with a background in social sciences and economics, supported by an international call for applications.

Becoming "adult" also means, above all, taking on new responsibilities toward one's community and beyond. The Winter School has become a key reference point for the research community interested in the analysis of economic and social inequalities, both from a theoretical and applied perspective. In the 2025 edition, the Winter School aimed to orient its content towards a goal that will remain in future editions: to connect the scientific community studying inequality, composed of both young and established researchers, with the great challenges facing modern societies, through the perspective of the humanities and economic sciences. This year's Winter School, titled "Inequality and Big Challenges," focused on several social challenges regarding the role of genetics, expectations, and aspirations, as well as the influence of family background on educational and economic inequalities, and the role of global poverty. The ultimate goal of the school is to create a meeting point between expertise from different scientific communities, all united by the typical methodological approach of economic sciences. By prioritizing topics related to major social challenges, the initiative also aims to make the event useful for European and national policy contexts.

Notable Contributions

The contributions of this edition emphasized the increasing need to view inequality as a multidimensional and, above all, multi-generational phenomenon. The lectures on the first day of the Winter School focused on the interaction between genetics and the environment, and the importance of this interaction in the distribution of human capital.

Aysu Okbay (VU Amsterdam, Netherlands) introduced the topic with an empirical and statistical perspective, identifying the data and techniques necessary to measure individual genetic expression, determined at birth, and its influence on certain outcomes measured at different stages of life. The lecture highlighted how recent developments in genetic sequencing techniques have expanded our understanding of the impact of genetic factors on human capital at various life stages and how these effects may vary based on socio-demographic factors.

Rosa Cheesman (University of Oslo, Norway) presented the latest literature on the interaction between environment and genetics, exploring how this interaction influences heterogeneous choices regarding human capital investment, one of the main drivers of income inequality. The issue of the interaction between "nature" and "nurture" is not new, even in economic sciences. Traditionally, genetics has been seen by economists as a form of unobservable heterogeneity that confounds the effects of observable treatments on outcomes. Using data on siblings and twins, economists have sought to isolate the genetic component as a common factor among these individuals. Today, thanks to new databases (such as the UK BioBank), which measure genetic markers at the individual level, it is possible to identify and estimate the role of genetic components in the variability of a specific outcome.

On the second day of the School, the focus shifted to the role of family background in long-term inequalities. Chico Ferreira (London School of Economics, UK) proposed a framework to understand and empirically analyze these inequalities, based on the theory of equality of opportunity. According to this theory, not all inequalities are unjust and therefore need to be compensated, but only those generated by factors outside an individual's control, such as the characteristics of the family of origin (education, income, use of time). Ferreira presented both theoretical and empirical contributions, emphasizing how inequalities of opportunity are a key to interpreting economic inequalities within and between countries. The context of origin impacts the economic opportunities of younger generations through several mechanisms.

Garance Genicot (Georgetown University, USA) highlighted the role of parental expectations and aspirations regarding their children's success goals. The lecture illustrated how aspirations can be incorporated into multi-generational investment models à la Solow, the backbone of economic growth models used in macroeconomics. Aspirations can be seen as goals of the parents' generation based on the performance of their children. There is a reward tied to the validation of such goals, which translates into greater incentives to invest. At the same time, there is a penalty for failure. This behavioral aspect can create differential investment mechanisms in the future (or more precisely, in future generations) between high- and low-income families. The models considered by Genicot predict unequal levels of income at equilibrium (in contrast to the Solow model, which predicts convergence), supported by the aspiration mechanism. This prediction underscores the importance of looking at development policies that compensate for the economic effects linked to the failure of expectations.

The third day of the school featured a presentation by Dean Jolliffe (World Bank, USA), who presented the contents of the 2024 edition of the Poverty, Prosperity and Planet Report. The report emphasizes that reducing poverty and increasing shared prosperity must occur in ways that do not impose unacceptably high costs on the environment. The current "polycrisis" — a combination of slow economic growth, increasing fragility, climate risks, and uncertainty — makes national development strategies and international cooperation difficult. Jolliffe highlighted how climate change and poverty are closely interconnected, and how development policies must promote just and sustainable transitions, involving governments and local communities.

Developing the agenda promoted by the World Bank also requires political solidity and sustainability. In many cases, poverty and social fragmentation cause conflicts that undermine the political sustainability of governments and slow the process of acquiring and implementing policies aimed at reducing poverty and expanding environmental sustainability. Finally, Laura Mayoral (Institute of Economic Analysis and Barcelona School of Economics, Spain) presented the latest evidence on the relationship between inequality, poverty, social fragmentation, and conflict. She explained how the growing number of conflicts in the world can be attributed to the unequal distribution of resources, both within and between groups defined by ethnicity, religion, or geographical origin. Group identity plays a crucial role in fostering discontent and participation in rebellions, even violent ones. However, conflict does not lead to well-being but destabilization, imposing costs primarily on the poorest groups, those most interested in change. The lecture underscored the importance of developing global policies that reduce internal conflicts, thus promoting a sustainable development process.

In Conclusion

The program of the Winter School included many other presentations based on research papers related to the main themes of the school. Students participated with around 30 presentations, organized in parallel sessions or in a poster session format. The updated program of the 2025 edition (and previous editions) is available on the website http://linux2.dse.univr.it/it/. On the same page, slides and reading lists associated with each presentation can be downloaded. The school is an initiative aimed at disseminating frontier scientific knowledge in economic sciences and the economic evaluation of public policies, which aim to produce empirical evidence in support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 1, 3, 5, and 10 of the 2030 Agenda.

Another key element that distinguishes the "maturity" of the Winter School is its ability to train future young economists by offering lectures that are often not present in PhD programs. The Winter School has established itself as an effective way to introduce junior participants to the literature that explores inequalities, always keeping in mind the major social challenges from which they originate or to which they contribute. The goal is to provide tools not only to measure and contextualize inequalities but also to understand the mechanisms that generate them, identifying the most appropriate policies to address them when necessary.

Francesco Andreoli

Research Scientist (Living Conditions) Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research & Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, University of Verona