Tyson Brown, a DUPRI Scholar and professor of sociology and medicine at Duke University, helped author a new National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) report examining the factors that shape economic and social mobility in the United States. The report, Economic and Social Mobility: New Directions for Data, Research, and Policy, brings together insights from sociology, economics, medicine, public policy and related disciplines to develop a new framework for understanding how opportunities and inequalities unfold across generations.
The committee’s work emphasizes that mobility is shaped not only by individual achievement, but also by broader social conditions, including wealth inequality, health disparities, education, neighborhood environments and public policy. Brown contributed to the report’s conceptual framework as well as sections focused on wealth mobility and future directions for research and policy. His research examines how inequality is produced and reproduced over time, particularly through racial disparities in wealth accumulation and opportunity.
The report calls for stronger national data infrastructure and more interdisciplinary research to better understand how people move through economic and social systems over the course of their lives. It also highlights the importance of developing policies that expand access to opportunity and reduce persistent barriers to mobility.
Brown will discuss findings from the report at the Population Association of America 2026 Annual Meeting in St. Louis, where scholars and policymakers will examine new approaches to studying and advancing social mobility in the United States.