In the research project WEALTHRAJECT, we shed light on the (dis-)continuity and variability of wealth accumulation over the life course. WEALTHTRAJECT is the first project to comprehensively and systematically investigate diversity in long-term wealth trajectories within and between social groups. Led by Philipp Lersch, the project began in 2024 and is funded by the European Research Council.
In WEALTHTRAJECT, we investigate wealth and deviations from typical developments over the entire life course. We integrate different strands of research to analyze how the variability of wealth trajectories over time arises from the interplay of saving and consumption, the receipt of transfers from parents and other family members, and (dis)investment in (un)profitable assets. To do this, we combine insights from longitudinal survey data, register data, and novel biographical data collected for the project. We exploit the untapped potential of this data through the use of advanced quantitative methods.
With WEALTHTRAJECT, we pursue four central goals:
- To document variability in wealth trajectories over people’s lives.
- To identify intragenerational drivers of variability in wealth trajectories.
- To establish the intergenerational relationships between family background and wealth trajectories.
- To collect novel life history data on wealth accumulation trajectories.
Latest News
- The WEALTHTRAJECT Project is Officially Underway!
We are thrilled to announce the official start of the WEALTHTRAJECT project. After an initial phase led by Principal Investigator Philipp Lersch, the team expanded in January 2025 with the addition of Sascha Dos Santos and Mathis Herpell. Since then, we have been hard at work refining the project’s core concepts and implementing our strategy to achieve the research objectives.
We are also delighted to welcome our newest team member, Irene Brown, who joined WEALTHTRAJECT in March 2025 as a student assistant. We look forward to sharing updates as the project progresses.