Originally published 2 June 2003

Warwick University is sponsoring a prestigous conference in the US this week on "Why Inequality Matters."

The conference is a joint event organised by Warwick's Economics department and The Brookings Institution, one of the foremost independent research bodies for economics, foreign policy, and governance in the US. The conference will bring together experts in the fields of behavioral economics, inequality, and health and will discuss the latest developments in research exploring the linkages between inequality, poverty, health, social welfare policy, and subjective well being in both developed and developing country contexts.

Warwick academics Andrew Oswald, Economics, Professor Gordon Brown and Jing Qian, Psychology, will be presenting a paper at the conference. Their paper "Rank Dependence in Pay Satisfaction," explores the the question of what makes workers happy with their pay and the importance that rank has on motivation.

The conference will run from Thursday 5 June to Friday 6 June at The Brookings Institution offices in Washington DC.

More details of the conference can be found at the Brookings Institute website.