About Ive Marx

I do research on what I would broadly describe as socio-economic policy, in the intersection of sociology, economics and the occasional a bit of political science.

I have a broad range of interests. My main focus has been on poverty and the effectiveness of minimum income protection, in relation to labour market change. This started a long-standing research line on the issue of in-work poverty and what to do about it. Later in my career I ventured into other topics, including migration (especially labour migration) and wealth. For most of my career I did comparative work on rich societies. More recently I have shifted to taking a more global perspective.

I am at present a Professor of Socio-Economic Policy at the University of Antwerp and serve as Director of the Centre for Social Policy Herman Deleeck. I coordinate the Antwerp Inderdisciplinary Platform for Inequality Research. I direct the Master Programme in Socio-Economic Sciences. I am Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor IZA in Bonn and at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at the Graduate Center of CUNY, New York.

I am the current co-chair of Espanet, Europe’s leading network of social policy researchers, together with Janine Leschke.

I have published a number of books, including ‘A New Social Question: on Minimum Income protection in the Post-Industrial Era (Amsterdam University Press/ University of Chigaco Press), ‘Minimum Income Protection in Flux’ (Palgrave, with Kenneth Nelson) and two volumes on changing inequalities and societal impacts published with Oxford University Press. I acted as editor of the Handbook of In-Work Poverty, published with Edward Elgar in 2018. Together with Sarah Marchal I wrote Zero Poverty Society: How to Ensure a Decent Minimum Income published with Oxford University Press in 2024.

Forthcoming books include: 

Pavolini, Emmanuele, Hook, Jennifer, Ive Marx and Stefani Scherer (2027). Oxford Handbook of the Impacts of Social Policy, Oxford University Press. (forthcoming)

Wang, Julia Shu-Huah & Marx, Ive (2026), Worlds of Welfare: Comparing Safety Nets Across the Globe, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing (forthcoming)

Lohmann, Henning, Marx, Ive and Emanuela Struffolini, Handbook of In-Work Poverty, Edward Elgar Publishing (forthcoming) 

Articles have appeared in such journals as the International Labour Review, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Social Policy, European Sociological Review, Social Forces, European Journal of Industrial Relations, Journal of Common Market Studies, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Journal of European Social Policy, Social Indicators Research, IZA Journal of European Labour Studies, Review of Income and Wealth, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and several other journals. I have also written a considerable number of book chapters. Here is my google scholar page​

I participated in a number of international research projects. I was joint-coordinator of the EU funded European Low Wage Research Network (LoWER) and the EU FP7 funded GINI Project, a large international research project on the causes and consequences of inequality. I am currently involved in EU Horizon project SWINS​

I do research to have a real world impact. For that reason I have also acted as a consultant to the European Commission, the OECD, the ILO and various other organisations and governments in numerous capacities.

I sit on the editorial boards of Social Forces, Journal of Social Policy, Social Inclusion and European Policy Analysis. 

Besides academia, I participate in public debates on policy issues through talks, debates and non-academic publications, including a regular column in Belgium’s main broadsheet De Standaard. I remain active on X​