“The drift of disproportionate asset holdings toward the pinnacles of wealth carries a society away from meritocracy, productivity, empathy, and mobility. Carried far enough, skewness in wealth distribution can undermine social cohesion and our democratic ideals.” - Jim Stone
Programs on Wealth Inequality
The James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation has made a significant investment in the study of wealth inequality, with emphasis on the causes and consequences of increasing accumulation at the top of the wealth distribution.
The Foundation has funded wealth inequality projects at thirteen institutions: Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Harvard Kennedy School, Brown University, INSEAD, MIT, UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, University College London, University of Michigan, UBC’s Vancouver School of Economics, Paris School of Economics, University of Munich, and University of Hong Kong.
Thirteen Programs on Wealth and Income Inequality
Stone Center
The Graduate Center, CUNY Visit →
Stone Program in Wealth Distribution, Inequality, and Social Policy
Harvard Kennedy School Visit →
Stone Centre for the Study of Wealth Inequality
INSEAD Visit →
Stone Center on Wealth and Income Inequality
UC Berkeley Visit →
Stone Inequality Initiative
Brown University Visit →
Stone Centre
University College London Visit →
Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics (CID)
University of Michigan Visit →
Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility
University of Chicago, Harris School Visit →
Stone Center on Global Wealth Dynamics
Paris School of Economics Visit →
Stone Centre on Wealth and Income Inequality
UBC Vancouver School of Economics Visit →
Munich International Stone Center for Inequality Research (ISI)
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Visit →
Stone Center on Inequality and Shaping the Future of Work
MIT Visit →
Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality in Asia
University of Hong Kong Visit →
To earn a substantial fortune requires some measure of talent, plenty of hard work, and a whole lot of luck. To give it away well is at least as difficult.
Many a painstakingly-built fortune has been dissipated ineffectively in the giving phase or directed posthumously toward purposes the builder of the wealth would never have favored. To avoid these hazards, and having already provided economic security for our children, my wife Cathy and I are bequeathing upon death virtually the entirety of the family estate to the support of just two philanthropic causes. Our tightly-defined focus is in line with our joint determination that, in order to maximize the rather limited influence we can exert from our graves, we should reject the path most commonly taken by fortunate people, which is the establishment of a foundation with wide subject matter discretion and a long life. Our plan, to the contrary, is designed not only to constrain our post-mortem giving narrowly by subject matter but also to direct that the funds be disbursed and put to work quickly. Read the full essay
Centers on Wealth Inequality 2025
The Foundation has funded wealth inequality projects at thirteen institutions: Brown University; Graduate Center of the City University of New York; Harvard Kennedy School; INSEAD; Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Paris School of Economics; University College London; University of British Columbia, Vancouver School of Economics; University of California, Berkeley; University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy; University of Hong Kong; and University of Michigan.