The ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (MiSoC) is a multidisciplinary centre, promoting collaboration between economists, sociologists and other social scientists, and using quantitative social science to provide evidence with which to address key societal challenges. MiSoC has been based at ISER at the University of Essex since 1989, but it is a collaboration with specialists from universities around the world, and the current research programme is run jointly with researchers at the University of Bristol. Our research themes aim to address questions that reflect social inequalities: how and why are resources such as income, health and wellbeing distributed, how is technology changing the demand for skills in the labour market, and how can we help young people from all backgrounds have access to acquiring these skills? Our work also explores how families are changing, how society and the economy are affected by ageing and migration, and how behaviours, attitudes and outcomes are passed down from one generation to the next.
We have 4 fully funded PhD studentships currently open for applications - read more here.
Go to Our Research pages to see how we are responding to the Covid-19 crisis.
In a blog for the Institute for Fiscal Studies, MiSoC student Sonkurt Sen with IFS co-authors Arun Advani and Ross Warwick explore the effect of A level choices on improving diversity among economists
Dr Amy Clair's work with Adam Tinson for the Health Foundation thinktank shows housing problems are likely a significant component of the ‘syndemic’ that has led to greater risks of Covid-19 infection and serious complications for certain social groups
Dr Ayse Guveli from our ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change describes her findings on the impact of periods of home schooling on inequalities in this article for The Conversation
