Does Policy Reduce Inequality? Causal Evidence on Compensatory and Redistributive Interventions In Education and the Labor Market

Does policy reduce inequality? Decades of stratification research have consistently shown that individuals’ backgrounds — gender, social class, and ethnic and racial origin — shape educational and labor market outcomes. A less resolved question pertains to whether public policy can mitigate this association and, if so, under what specific conditions. In the context of increasing inequality, fiscal constraints, and growing skepticism towards redistribution, it is both a scientific and public imperative to understand when interventions succeed and why many produce modest, heterogeneous, or fading effects.

We call for rigorous causal analyses of compensatory and redistributive policies throughout the life course, including, but not limited to, affirmative action and preferential admissions, tuition-free or means-tested higher education, compensatory school funding, conditional cash transfers, gender quotas, and active labor market programs. Submissions that extend beyond the average treatment effects to explore mechanisms, heterogeneity, and institutional conditions are particularly encouraged. We advocate for studies employing credible identification strategies such as experiments, quasi-experiments, and related designs. Comparative studies across national contexts and research from the Global South, where large-scale compensatory policies are prevalent but underrepresented in the literature, are strongly encouraged. By assembling rigorous empirical evidence, this session aims to elucidate the actual possibilities and limitations of policy as a tool for reducing inequality and specify the conditions under which equity-oriented interventions deliver on their promise.