Timothy M. “Tim” Smeeding is a multidisciplinary scholar who has made foundational contributions to research on income inequality and social mobility. He was founding director of the Luxembourg Income Study (1983–2006), a cross-national database of comparative income and poverty data. While working for the U.S. Census Bureau, Smeeding developed poverty-measurement methods that were later used in the Supplemental Poverty Measure.
Professional positions
- 2008–present: Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics (2008–2016), Lee Rainwater Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics (2016–present, now emeritus), and Hilldale Professor (2023–present, now emeritus), University of Wisconsin–Madison
- 1990–2008: Professor of economics and public administration (1990–2006), Maxwell Professor of Public Policy (1999–2006), and Distinguished Professor of Economics and Public Administration (2006–2008), Syracuse University
- 1987–1990: Professor of public policy and economics, Vanderbilt University
- 1976–1987: Assistant to associate to full professor of economics, University of Utah
- 1974–1976: Assistant professor of economics, Bowdoin College
Notable publications
- Bartfeld, Judith, Craig Gundersen, Timothy M. Smeeding, and James P. Ziliak, eds. 2015. SNAP Matters: How Food Stamps Affect Health and Well-Being. Stanford University Press.
- Salverda, Wiemer, Brian Nolan, and Timothy M. Smeeding, eds. 2009. The Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality. Oxford University Press.
- Moynihan, Daniel P., Timothy M. Smeeding, and Lee Rainwater, eds. 2004. The Future of the Family. Russell Sage Foundation.
- Rainwater, Lee, and Timothy M. Smeeding. 2003. Poor Kids in a Rich Country: America’s Children in Comparative Perspective. Russell Sage Foundation.
Degrees
- PhD, economics, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- MS, economics, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- MA, economics, University of Connecticut
- BA, economics, Canisius College
Induction Remarks
In The ANNALS
- Volume 711, January 2024: “Legacies of the War on Poverty” (coauthored with Sung Ah Bahk and Robert Moffitt)
- Volume 710, November 2023: “What We Learned from the 2021 Child Tax Credit Expansion”
- Volume 695, May 2021: What Has Happened to the American Working Class Since the Great Recession? (coedited with Jennifer Romich and Michael R. Strain)
- Volume 680, November 2018: “The PSID in Research and Policy”
- Volume 657, January 2015: Monitoring Social Mobility in the Twenty-First Century (coedited with David B. Grusky and C. Matthew Snipp)
- Volume 635, May 2011: Young Disadvantaged Men: Fathers, Families, Poverty, and Policy (coedited with Irwin Garfinkel and Ronald B. Mincy)
- Volume 580, March 2002: “Cross-National Differences in Employment and Economic Sufficiency” (coauthored with Katherin Ross Phillips)
- Volume 495, January 1988: “The Luxembourg Income Study: The Use of International Telecommunications in Comparative Social Research” (coauthored with Lee Rainwater)
