Research

Published and Ongoing Research

My research focuses on four topics:

Labor market inequality in the US, focusing on (a) earnings inequalities and (b) unstable work hours/schedules
Poverty and hardship in US and cross-nationally, including housing-related hardships
Intergenerational mobility in the US
Social policy and public attitudes cross-nationally

Scroll below for article lists by topic. Click on each topic for paper descriptions, full papers, and supplementary material.

Unstable Work Hours/Schedules
Published

Ryan Finnigan. 2018. “Varying Weekly Work Hours and Earnings Instability in the Great Recession.” Social Science Research 74: 96-107
Ryan Finnigan and Savannah Hunter. 2018. “Occupational Composition and Racial/Ethnic Inequalities in Varying Weekly Work Hours,” pp.165-193 in Research in the Sociology of Work, vol. 32, edited by Ethel Mickey and Adia Harvey Wingfield
Ryan Finnigan and Jo Mhairi Hale. 2018. “Working 9 to 5? Union Membership and Work Hours and Schedules.” Social Forces 4(1): 1541–1568

Ongoing

Ryan Finnigan. “Work Hours and Schedules and Well-Being: Causation and Cumulative Effects,” funded by the Russell Sage Foundation
Ryan Finnigan and Savannah Hunter. "Do State Reporting Pay Laws Effectively Limit Hours and Earnings Instability?" funded by the Hellman Fellowship

Earnings
Ongoing

Ryan Finnigan. “What’s New about the ‘New Economy’? An Empirical Assessment of Metropolitan Labor Market Change in the United States”
Ryan Finnigan. “The New Economy and Racial and Ethnic Wage Inequalities”
Ryan Finnigan. “Trends in Wage Disparities by Sexual Orientation in the United States”

Poverty
Published

David Brady, Regina Baker, and Ryan Finnigan. 2013. “When Unionization Disappears: State-Level Unionization and Working Poverty in the U.S.” American Sociological Review 78(5):872-896
David Brady, Ryan Finnigan, and Sabine Huebgen. 2017. “Rethinking the Demographic Risks of Poverty: Prevalences and Penalties in Comparative Perspective.” American Journal of Sociology 123(3):740-786

Ongoing

David Brady, Regina Baker, and Ryan Finnigan. "Prevalences, Penalties, and Child Poverty in the United States"

Housing and Material Hardship
Published

Ryan Finnigan. 2014. “Racial and Ethnic Stratification in the Relationship between Homeownership and Self-Rated Health.” Social Science & Medicine 115:72-81
Bill McCarthy, Angela Carter, Mikael Janson, Cecilia Benoit, and Ryan Finnigan. 2018. “Poverty, Material Hardship, and Mental Health among Workers in Three Frontline Service Occupations.” Journal of Poverty 22(4): 334-354
Ryan Finnigan and Kelsey D. Meagher. 2019. “Past Due: Combinations of Housing and Utility Hardship in the United States.” Sociological Perspectives 62(1): 96–119

Ongoing

Ryan Finnigan. “Racial Segregation, Population Change, and Minority Homeownership, 1980-2010”
Ryan Finnigan and Bridget Clark. "When the Techies Come to Town? High-Income Migration and Rent Burden across Metropolitan Areas, 2006-2016"

Intergenerational Mobility
Ongoing

Ryan Finnigan. "Childhood Family Structure Differences in Adult Education and Income across Birth Cohorts"
Ryan Finnigan. "Racial/Ethnic Stratification in the Intergenerational Persistence of Economic Security"

Published

David Brady and Ryan Finnigan. 2014. “Does Immigration Undermine Public Support for Social Policy?” American Sociological Review 79(1):17-42

Tarik Abou-Chadi and Ryan Finnigan. Forthcoming. “Rights for Same-Sex Couples and Attitudes toward Gays and Lesbians in Europe.” Comparative Political Studies