Global Stratification Economics (GSE): A Primer–Definitions and Research Implications

We coin the term Global Stratification Economics (GSE) to extend Stratification Economics (SE) to international contexts where mechanisms emerge that can be identified as (1) universal but matched to positioning along a country’s development path or (2) context-specific and historically dependent in ways different from the United States and other international environments. Building on SE’s core insight that groups compete over scarce resources and that dominant groups shape rules to preserve advantage, we define GSE as an approach that foregrounds historical genesis (e.g., settler colonialism, slavery, caste, extractive governance, military intervention), local institutions that structure dominance and resistance, and transnational mechanisms (e.g., imported stratification and the lateral mobility hypothesis) that link origin- and destination-country hierarchies. Drawing on evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the global macroeconomy, we synthesize research on intergenerational mobility, wealth and asset inequality, labor-market segmentation, colorism, caste and ethnicity, gendered and intersectional constraints, spatial inequality and property regimes, and global value chains. We conclude by outlining how GSE reshapes measurement and international policy evaluation by centering group-differentiated outcomes, institutional transformation, and pillars of recognition, redistribution, and repair and by offering a checklist for researchers to apply GSE.