Dr Abigail Mcknight CASE, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE, London School of Economics

Biography

Abigail McKnight is Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the LSE where she has worked since 1999. Her research interests include inequality, poverty, wealth, social mobility and employment policy. She has recently held research grants from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Nuffield Foundation, the European Commission and the Social Mobility Commission. She organises CASE Welfare Policy and Analysis Seminars and is an editorial board member of Social Inclusion.

Dr Abigail Mcknight's current research interests are:

Multi-dimensional inequality
Low wage employment and labour market inequality
The distribution of wealth and asset-based welfare
Capability approach
Social mobility (especially downward mobility)
Economics of education

Abigail's latest projects include:

Understanding the Links between Inequality and Poverty
The Multidimensional Inequality Framework
Financial resilience of households in Europe
Inequality policy toolkits

Latest

CASE Social Exclusion Seminars

Social Policies and Distributional Outcomes (SPDO) event: Social Mobility

02 December 2020

Abigail McKnight (CASE)

CASEpapers

The financial resilience of households: 22 country study with new estimates, breakdowns by household characteristics and a review of policy options

04 May 2020

Abigail McKnight and Mark Rucci

Some households are less resilient to financial shocks than others. This may be because they have low levels of savings, have limited access to affordable credit, already hold high levels of debt or lack the skills requi... Read more...

CASEbriefs

The National Living Wage and falling earnings inequality

06 March 2020

Kerris Cooper and Abigail McKnight

The more generous National Living Wage replaced the National Minimum Wage for employees aged 25 and over in April 2016. In April 2020 it is due to increase to 60% of the average wage. In this policy brief we assess the ... Read more...

CASE Social Exclusion Seminars

Social Policies and Distributional Outcomes (SPDO) event - The Conservative's Record on Employment: Policy, Spending and Outcomes 2015-2020

26 February 2020

Abigail McKnight (CASE, London School of Economics)

CASEreports

Launch of policy toolkit: poverty and inequality reduction policies

04 February 2020

Irene Bucelli, Abigail McKnight and Kate Summers

This toolkit examines policies with a potential 'double dividend': policies that could lead to reductions in both poverty and inequality in the UK. The selection of policies has been informed by a larger research progra... Read more...

CASEreports

Understanding the relationship between inequalities and poverty: policy toolkit

04 February 2020

Irene Bucelli, Abigail McKnight and Kate Summers

CASEpapers

Understanding the relationship between inequalities and poverty: a review of dynamic mechanisms

30 October 2019

Magali Duque and Abigail McKnight

In this paper we examine the evidence on how dynamic mechanisms, which include earnings and income mobility, poverty dynamics, social mobility and the accumulation of risk and advantage over the lifecycle, may be a contr... Read more...

CASEpapers

Understanding the relationship between poverty, inequality and growth: a review of existing evidence

18 July 2019

Abigail McKnight

This paper reviews the theoretical literature and empirical evidence on the relationship between poverty, inequality and economic growth. It finds evidence that economic inequality is good for growth as well as new conv... Read more...

CASEpapers

Understanding the relationship between inequalities and poverty: mechanisms associated with crime, the legal system and punitive sanctions

03 July 2019

Magali Duque and Abigail McKnight

This paper outlines the various issues pertaining to how crime, the legal system and punitive sanctions may provide a mechanism through which inequality is positively related to poverty. We analyse trends in crime rates... Read more...

CASEreports

Understanding the Relationship between Poverty and Inequality, Overview report

30 January 2019

Irene Bucelli, John Hills, Eleni Karagiannaki, Abigail McKnight, Polly Vizard and Lin Yang

An understanding that poverty and inequality are inextricably linked has given rise to a number of large international organisations setting joint inequality-poverty reduction targets on the basis that poverty cannot be... Read more...

CASE Social Exclusion Seminars

Higher education policy, spending and outcomes (Social Policy and Distributional Outcomes seminar series)

07 November 2018

Abigail McKnight (CASE)

CASEreports

CASE Annual Report 2017

19 June 2018

Kerris Cooper and Abigail McKnight

A summary of the output of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion: The work programme of the Centre includes monitoring social spending, policies and outcomes in the UK, international comparisons of poverty and of t... Read more...

Special or Commissioned Reports

Downward mobility, opportunity hoarding and the ‘glass floor’

25 June 2015

Abigail McKnight

This report examines the evidence for a cohort of British children born in 1970 in terms of the relationship between family background, childhood cognitive skills and adult success in the labour market.It focuses on two ... Read more...

Selected Work:

(with R V Reeves), 'Glass floors and slow growth: A recipe for deepening inequality and hampering social mobility',
LSE British Politics and Policy Blog/Brookings Institute Social Mobility memos (2017)

(with F Cowell and E Karagiannaki), 'Accounting for cross country differences in wealth inequality',
Review of Income and Wealth, doi:10.1111/roiw.12278 (2017)

(with M Duque and M Rucci) 'Double Trouble: A review of the relationship between UK poverty and economic inequality',
Oxfam GB (2017)

'Employment policy since the crisis',
in R Lupton, J Hills, K Stewart, T Burchardt and P Vizard (eds), Social Policy in a Cold Climate: Policies and their consequences since the crisis, Bristol: Policy Press (2016)

(with K Stewart, SM Himmelweit and M Palillo), 'Low pay and in-work poverty: Preventative measures and preventative approaches',
Evidence Review prepared for DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. ISBN: 978-92-79-58432-9 doi:10.2767/43829 (2016)

(with M Duque and M Rucci), 'Creating more equal societies - What works?',
Evidence Review prepared for DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. ISBN 978-92-79-58430-5 doi:10.2767/459956 (2016)

(with L Gardiner), 'Paying up: Who's been getting pay rises, who hasn't and will that change?',
in G Kelly and C D'Arcy (eds), Securing a Pay Rise: The path back to shared wage growth, London: Resolution Foundation (2015)

'Downward mobility, opportunity hoarding and the glass floor;,
Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission Research Report (2015)

Changing Inequalities and Societal Impacts in Rich Countries: Thirty Countries' Experiences
(co-edited with B Nolan, W Salverda, D Checchi, I Marx, IG Toth and HG van de Werfhorst), Oxford University Press (2014)
Changing Inequalities in Rich Countries: Analytical and Comparative Perspectives
(co-edited with W Salverda, B Nolan, D Checchi, I Marx, IG Toth and HG van de Werfhorst), Oxford University Press (2014)
Wealth in the UK: Distribution, Accumulation and Policy
(with J Hills, F Bastagli, F Cowell, H Glennerster and E Karagiannaki), Oxford University Press (2013)
(with J Goldthorpe) The economic basis of social class,
in S Morgan, D Grusky and G Fields (eds.) Mobility and Inequality: Frontiers of research from sociology to economics, Stanford University Press (2005)
Higher education outcomes, graduate employment and university performance indicators
(with M Bratti, R Naylor and J Smith), Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, 167(3): 475-496 (2004)
Earnings Inequality and Earnings Mobility, 1977-1997: The impact of mobility on long term inequality,
Employment Relations Research Series No.8, Department of Trade and Industry (2000)
Graduate employability: Policy and performance in higher education in the UK
(with J. Smith and R. Naylor) Economic Journal, 110 (2000)