Fangqi Wen CV

I am currently working on three interrelated lines of research.  

First, I examine the relationships among social institutions, demography, and gender inequality. I am particularly interested in how informal norms, such as patrilineality, patrilocality, and patriarchy, continue to exert powerful impacts on demography and perpetuate gender inequalities.  

Second, I study social stratification and mobility in historical settings, because the patterns observed in the distant past shed light on the roots of many inequalities today.  

Finally, I investigate the discrepancies between social reality and people’s perception. Specifically, I explore the causes and consequences of misperceptions of inequality and social mobility. 

My previous work has appeared in Demography, Social Science Research, Population and Development Review, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and has been featured in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal.