Ellora Derenoncourt, associate professor of economics at Princeton University and director of the Program for Research on Inequality, has been awarded a 2026 MacArthur Fellowship for “uncovering the historical roots of racial disparities in wealth and economic mobility in the United States.”

MacArthur Fellows are chosen annually by an independent selection committee after being nominated by a group of invited external nominators. Derenoncourt is one of two Princeton faculty (and one Ph.D.) to receive the fellowship this year, and one of the 20 total MacArthur Fellows selected. As a Fellow, Derenoncourt will receive an $800,000, no-strings-attached award distributed over five years.

Derenoncourt’s research examines issues in labor economics, economic history, and inequality, often with a focus on racial inequities that continue to pervade American society.

“This is a fantastic and well-deserved honor,” said Owen Zidar, professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University and acting director of the Economics Department’s Industrial Relations Section. “I believe this is the first ever for the Economics Department at Princeton and the Industrial Relations Section. We are very lucky to have Ellora as a colleague and a friend. It’s a proud day for the Section.”

In their statement on Derenoncourt’s award, the MacArthur Foundation shared, “For her research on labor market standards, wage inequality, and economic policies, Derenoncourt builds innovative datasets and leverages real-world historical events as starting points of inquiry. She is identifying the key policies and drivers of ongoing gaps in earnings and accumulated wealth between Black and White Americans.”

The MacArthur Foundation highlighted two areas of Derenoncourt’s research that stood out to them when awarding her Fellowship:

Her work identifying where anti-discrimination legislation has limited mobility and reduced equality for Black Americans in “Can You Move to Opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration” and “Minimum Wage and Racial Inequality” provides “powerful evidence that expanding universal, race-neutral policies can reduce economic inequality.”

In her groundbreaking study on the Black-white racial wealth gap in the United States, Derenoncourt and her fellow researchers showed that progress on closing the racial wealth gap has all but stalled since the 1950s and that inequality is on track to grow moving forward. “Derenoncourt adds empirical evidence and historical context to policy conversations about the causes and potential means for repair of long-entrenched economic inequality.”

With the support of the MacArthur Foundation, Derenoncourt will continue to investigate inequality through several ongoing projects. 

“I’m honored to receive the fellowship,” shared Derenoncourt. “There is more work to be done to understand the drivers of inequality and more to be learned from history about how to foster a just economy. I hope to spend the coming years working on these topics alongside colleagues here at Princeton and in the broader field, and with the inspiring new generation of scholars dedicated to these questions.”

Derenoncourt joined the Department of Economics at Princeton in 2021, following a postdoctoral fellowship at its Industrial Relations Section. She is the recipient of a 2024 Sloan Research Fellowship, a 2023 National Science Foundation CAREER award, and the founding director of Princeton’s Program for Research on Inequality. Her research has been published in journals such as the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and American Economic Review: Insights.

To learn more about Derenoncourt and her work, visit the Program for Research on Inequality‘s website.