Research Interests: Economic inequality and intergenerational mobility; education; causal inference; sociology of politics

Aleksei Opacic is a PhD candidate in Sociology and a Harvard-Kennedy Scholar. Most broadly, Aleksei is interested in the intergenerational transmission of (dis)advantage and the causal mechanisms underpinning this transmission. In particular, his research aims to integrate causal perspectives on the role of schooling and education in socioeconomic attainment with the more descriptive tradition that has often characterized social mobility research. Aleksei’s current projects focus on the construction of theoretically-informed interventional estimands in the education system that could be used to inform mobility-enhancing policy.

Before starting at Harvard, Aleksei worked as a policy researcher at a London-based think tank. He obtained a BA in Social and Political Science from Cambridge and an MSc in Sociology from Oxford.

Previous Degrees:
BA in Human, Social and Political Science, King’s College, University of Cambridge, 2018
MSc in Sociology, University of Oxford, 2019