Ken-Hou Lin

Ken-Hou Lin is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin's College of Liberal Arts, specializing in the intersection of economic transformation and social inequality. His research examines how financialization reshapes labor markets, wealth distribution, and social boundaries through institutional and relational processes.

Lin's research interests focus on inequality, economic sociology, and financialization, with particular attention to labor market dynamics, racial stratification, immigration, and wealth gaps. His work demonstrates how the expansion of finance extracts resources from workers and families while weakening labor bargaining power through corporate financialization and household financial product consumption.

His publication trends reveal consistent examination of financialization's societal impacts across labor markets (occupational mobility, firm size effects), racial inequality (wealth gaps, dating markets), and household economics (health insurance, credit access). The research spans quantitative analysis of large datasets with theoretical contributions to understanding contemporary capitalism.

• Finalist, 2020 Robert W. Hamilton Book Awards
• 2020 Top Sociology Titles, Oxford University Press

Lin serves as editor of Socio-Economic Review, the official journal of the Society of the Advancement of Socio-Economic Studies (SASE). His research has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Joyce Foundation, and Institute for New Economic Thinking. He teaches graduate courses in social statistics and undergraduate seminars on inequality.

Lin maintains active engagement with public discourse through media contributions to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Harvard Business Review, particularly regarding financialization's societal consequences.