Assistant Professor Lloyd Grieger has been awarded a grant worth $143,578 from the Russell Sage Foundation to support research into social inequality. His project, entitled “How Accessible is the Top? The Changing Rigidity of High Incomes and Earnings”, is a collaboration with Professor Fabian Pfeffer, of the University of Michigan. Drawing on evidence that suggests a substantial part of the rise in economic inequality over the last 40 years has been driven by gains at the top of the economic ladder, Grieger and Pfeffer will study the permeability of the top of the income distribution, asking whether numerous people people cycle in and out of affluence or whether the same individuals consistently occupy top positions. They will estimate the proportion of individuals that ever experience affluence during adulthood and will identify which demographic characteristics are associated with entry into the top positions.