
Specialization:
Quantitative & Computational Methods, Spatial Methods, Social Stratification, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Income & Wealth Inequality, Comparative & Historical Methods
Education:
Ph.D., University of Wisconson - Madison
Bio:
My research lies at the nexus of social stratification, economic and political sociology. It integrates computational and quantitative methods with those of comparative historical methods in order to investigate the social-structural and institutional determinants of income and wealth inequality, both cross-nationally and within the U.S. context. More specifically, my research draws on panel data analysis, spatial econometrics, and machine learning tools—including both unsupervised clustering techniques and supervised learning algorithms. While I employ computational methods, I retain a keen interest in comparative-historical methods, particularly event structure analysis (ESA), sequence analysis, and process tracing. More recently, I have been part of collaborative projects that use survey experiments in U.S. contexts, alongside work in computational text analysis focusing on topic modeling and sentiment analysis.
My papers have been published in Social Science Research, Journal of Industrial Relations, Spatial Demography, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Journal of International Development, The Sociological Quarterly, and Interface: A Journal for and About Social Movements. Beyond academic research, I also contribute essays and commentary to public-facing outlets such as Foreign Affairs, Boston Review, World Economic Forum, Harvard International Review, Yale Journal of International Affairs, and Al Jazeera.
My research has won awards from various sections of the American Sociological Association, including the Mathematical Sociology, Political Economy of the World-System Section, and Sociology of Development. I have also received the Sabina Avdagic Early Career Scholar Prize from the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE). I hold an M.A. from New York University and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Articles
2025 Karl Vachuska & Movahed, Masoud. “Estimating the Causal Effect of Gun Violence on Neighborhood Popularity,” Spatial Demography. Online First.
2025 Movahed, Masoud. “Structural vs. Associational Power and Income Inequality,” Journal of Industrial Relations. Online First.
2024 Movahed, Masoud & Tiffany Neman. “Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States: A Racial-Spatial Account.” Social Science Researchs123(2).
2023 Masoud, Movahed. “Varieties of Capitalism and Income Inequality.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 64(6):621-657.
2023 Goldberg, Chad Alan & Masoud Movahed. “The New Class and Right-Wing Populism: The Case of Wisconsin.” The Sociological Quarterly65(1), 105–125.
2023 Movahed, Masoud., & Hirsh, Elizabeth. “Mobilizing Equal Employment Rights: The Social and Political Determinants of Discrimination Complaints,” The Sociological Quarterly, 64(2), 296–319.
2022 Movahed, Masoud., & Hirsh, Elizabeth. The Regional Determinants of Collective Action in the Era of American Resistance. Interface: A Journal For and About Social Movements14(1):81 – 100.
2020 Movahed, Masoud. “Industrializing an Oil-Based Economy: Evidence from Iran’s Automobile Industry,” Journal of International Development, 32:1148–1170.
Courses:
Social Statistics, Applied Statistics for the Life Sciences, Capstone in Data Analysis