A/Prof. Mooi-Reci’s research program melds questions, conceptualisations and quantitative methodological approaches into a unique interdisciplinary perspective and expertise. Particularly relevant to sociology, social policy, and labour economics, Irma’s work has influenced subsequent scholarship on the socioeconomic consequences of unemployment and joblessness for workers and their families, which has advanced knowledge empirically and conceptually.

Research Philosophy

A/Prof. Mooi-Reci’s research philosophy is underpinned by the objective to undertake high–quality interdisciplinary research on issues related to labour market inequality and public policy in Australia and internationally and to contribute to the international literature in the areas of labour market inequality and stratification.

Research Contributions

Irma’s distinctive contribution has been to undertake empirically robust quantitative research, based on mature longitudinal data from same individuals and households over time, to deliver a rigorous and holistic perspective on life course and career dynamics. For her research she has analysed a range of secondary collected longitudinal panel data sets, covering Australia (the HILDA Survey), the U.S. (PSID), Germany (GSOEP), the Netherlands (OSA panel), United Kingdom (BHPS and Understanding Society), and Spain (the Spanish Labor Force Survey). She has also used administrative (register data) from the Central Bureau of Statistics in the Netherlands in combination with the Dutch OSA panel linking parents' unemployment histories with their children's educational trajectories.

Her work has provided evidence to inform debates about processes of labour market inequality associated with non-standard forms of employment and unemployment, stigma and labour market discrimination, intergenerational inequalities, factors that reduce labour market adversity and evaluations of unemployment benefit reforms.

Research Areas

Substantively, Irma's major research contributions can be usefully categorised into one of the following three themes: