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PROPEL
PROactive Policymaking for Equal Lives
Inequality of What?
Inequality is one of the defining issues in contemporary societies. While income inequality used to form one of the largest economic inequalities, today wealth inequality does. Housing markets, housing investments, and homeownership drive much of the wealth inequality we see today. Housing also drives many social inequalities, such as inequalities between generations and across family types. PROPEL maps these inequalities across countries and across different groups of society.
The Political Paths to Inequality
Housing policies, just like any other policies, will shape the types of inequalities present in a society. The PROPEL team uses qualitative research methods to explain how housing policies have developed, and quantitative research methods to explain the inequalities they generate. We draw tools from political science, public policy, sociology, and psychology to collect data and answer our research questions. We prioritise research questions with clear policy relevance and strive to engage with public and private stakeholders and practitioners.
About Lindsay FLYNN
Lindsay Flynn is the PI of the PROPEL project. She is an associate professor in political science at the University of Luxembourg, where she also serves as the Deputy Director of the Master in European Governance. In her research, Lindsay examines the interplay between inequality, the welfare state, and political economy. She has published research on topics including: how contemporary housing policies lead to delays in leaving the parental home and becoming a parent oneself; how labor and housing markets shape inequalities within and across younger and older generations, and; how different types of state-influenced markets such as childcare markets create gendered employment patterns. A poster from her dissertation won the APSA Best Poster in Public Policy and her article on childcare markets and maternal employment was one of 15 chosen out of over 2,500 articles as an official nominee for the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research.
Lindsay received her PhD from the University of Virginia (USA). Before beginning at the University of Luxembourg, Lindsay taught political science and public policy at Wheaton College (Massachusetts, USA). While there, she co-chaired the Curriculum Implementation Team, a committee charged with implementing a new undergraduate curriculum designed for the rigors and demands of a 21st century labor market.
The PROPEL Team
Dr. Giulia Buscicchio joined the PROPEL team in October 2021 as a Research Associate. She is based at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) and holds visiting researcher status at the University of Luxembourg.
Giulia’s research interests primarily lie in investigating the effect of people’s attitudes and behaviours on social inequalities, especially gender inequalities in a variety of contexts, including politics, organisational labour, and housing, among others. Her work employs quantitative methods, including structural equation models, to predict intention for behaviours like applying for rental benefits, purchasing, and voting. These predictions are grounded in theoretical foundations from social psychology.
Giulia holds a Double-degree Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy, and Universität Bielefeld, Germany (2021).
Dr. Sarah Kostecki worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher on the PROPEL team from September 2021 until April 2023.
Sarah’s research interests are centred around investigating issues at the nexus of social policy and socio-economic inequalities in a comparative perspective. Some of her current research investigates the relationships between leave and gender employment inequalities, unpaid work and inter-household inequalities between men and women, and how economic resources and financial strategies factor into the housing decisions of young people.
Sarah graduated magna cum laude from DePaul University in Chicago (2008) with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and minors in Economics and Italian. She received both her master’s degree and PhD in Political Science from the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City (2021).
Dr. Giuseppe Montalbano joined the PROPEL team as a Postdoctoral Researcher in September 2022.
His research interests include European political economy and financial governance, lobbying and corporate influence in the EU policy-making, as well as Critical approaches to International Political Economy. As a member of the research team, Giuseppe employs qualitative methodologies to analyse and explain the decision-making processes behind housing-related policies and the financialisation of housing, by focusing on their impact on socioeconomic inequalities in Europe and the United States.
Giuseppe graduated in Political Philosophy at the University of Pisa and the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. He obtained his PhD in Political Science at LUISS University of Rome, and held different teaching and research positions at LUISS University, Scuola Normale Superiore (Florence) and the University of Bologna.
Julia Furtado de Barros joined the PROPEL team a PhD student and doctoral researcher in July 2022.
Her research interests comprise the dynamics of poverty, socioeconomic and wealth inequality in comparative perspective. In particular, she studies the social and political outcomes of young adults in a context of changing housing policies and welfare regimes and growing social inequality. Her initial work focuses on exploring whether and to what extent the welfare preferences and political choices of young adults are connected to housing wealth/equity (also family wealth) and how this relationship is influenced by the housing market institutional context.
Julia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Brazil and a Master of Science in Sociology from the Universiteit van Tilburg (NL). Her work trajectory includes researching public policies for vulnerable populations in Brazil and working as a research assistant at the European Values Studies (EVS).
Sharon Bravo joined the PROPEL team a PhD student and doctoral researcher in September 2023.
Her research interests include social policy, social innovation, inequality, and sustainability. She is currently examining the relationship between housing policies and the social constructions of target populations.
Sharon holds a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from the American University (Managua, Nicaragua) and a Master in European Governance from the University of Luxembourg. Sharon previously held a six-month full-time internship on the PROPEL project.
Jérôme Seibert joined the PROPEL team as a student assistant in March 2023. He is currently enrolled in the Master Programme European Governance at the University of Luxembourg.
His works focuses on the creation of a housing subsidy database for the EU-15 plus Norway, Switzerland and the US, and the development of indicators that will allow to evaluate and compare different housing subsidy policies. He also assists with organisational tasks such as preparations of the Housing Day 2023.
Jérôme obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with Philosophy as a minor in 2022 from the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen. His main interests include the political economy of the EU with a special interest in EU energy policies as well as Finance and Banking in Europe.