David Brady’s research professorship proposes to focus on the broad area of research on “Inequality and Social Policy” focusing on the causes and consequences of poverty/inequality and social policy, and the interrelationships between the two; and more precisely on four specific research themes: poverty measurement, the political causes of poverty, long term economic resources and health and racial inequalities, and the political consequences of immigration and ethnic heterogeneity. These research themes overlap as well as stand independently. Increasingly, Brady will be aiming to contribute to U.S.-specific research, such as the literature on American poverty and will do comparative research, including German-U.S. comparisons, cross-European comparisons and some work on developing countries. Brady plans to collaborate strongly with WZB researchers of different research units (Forschungsschwerpunkte) on a number of papers and projects.