Author: Mathis Herpell

We are very happy to share that the first journal article from the WEALTHTRAJECT project was published in June in The Journals of Gerontology! In it, project collaborator Anastasia Lam and project leader Philipp Lersch investigate how cumulative advantage over the life course disperses between wealth and health – ultimately reinforcing existing inequalities. With “Diffusion of cumulative advantage? How wealth and health trajectories co-evolve across the life course among older adults” Lam and Lersch extend the theory of cumulative advantage to include cross-domain diffusion process and capture these processes through growth curve models. The full article is available in open access.

It’s also been a lively summer of conference presentations for the team. At the European Population Conference in Bologna in June, Philipp Lersch, Sophia Fauser and Mathis Herpell presented their research on the topics of “Explaining Variation in Intergenerational Downward Mobility in Homeownership across Europe”, “Parenthood, Work and Inequality across the Life Course” and “The nativity wealth gap”, respectively. In July Mathis Herpell presented the WEALTHTRAJECT research on wealth mobility at the European Consortium for Sociological Research Annual Conference in Dublin. Finally, Sascha dos Santos gave presentations on the project research on turning points in wealth trajectories at the International Sociological Association RC28 Summer Conference and at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in New York in August.

Two members of the WEALTHTRAJECT team presented first results of their work on the project at the 2026 spring conference of the German Sociological Society (DGS) section on “Social Inequality and Social Structure Analysis”, held in Potsdam last week. Sascha Dos Santos gave a presentation with the title “Stability and Turning Points in Life Course Trajectories: An Application to Wealth Accumulation”, in which he clarified central concepts and showcased first preliminary results. Mathis Herpell presented his work in progress on a systematic review and meta-analysis of the nativity wealth gap, which he works on as part of his dissertation in the WEALTHTRAJECT project.

The conference proved to be a valuable opportunity to share first research findings, and to connect with other scholars working on similar topics and methods. The presentations generated thoughtful discussions, with attendees posing insightful questions that will help to refine our ongoing work. We’re grateful for the chance to disseminate the WEALTHTRAJECT project’s progress within the academic community and look forward to building new collaborations.

We are excited to announce that the WEALTHTRAJECT team has expanded with the addition of Sophia Fauser, who joined as a postdoctoral researcher in February 2026. In her role on the project, she will investigate the relationship between family background and wealth trajectories, linking intragenerational developments with intergenerational transmission. Sophia brings expertise in life course research, from her previous work in the Department of Microsociology at Humboldt University in Berlin and the completion of her doctorate in sociology at the University of Bamberg. Her previous research has shed light on the life course impacts of temporary and atypical employment, and we cannot wait to see her skills applied to wealth inequality research.

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.