Mihaela-Claudia Pop

Income Composition Inequality from Socialism to Capitalism

Mihaela is pursuing a DPhil at the School of Geography and the Environment, under the supervision of Prof Dariusz Wójcik and Dr Stefanos Ioannou. Her research focuses on the economic geographies of income inequality and in the ex-communist countries from Central Eastern Europe over the past 30 years. Mihaela investigates the evolution and spatial trends in income inequality at the local, national, and regional levels, as well as the effects of the financial sector on income inequality. She is particularly interested in income composition, labour and capital income shares, financial inclusion, digitalization, and financial technologies (FinTech). Mihaela is also a research assistant at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics (LSE). She works with Prof Neil Lee, Dr Pawel Bukowski, and Dr Mark Fransham on the “Linking National and Regional Income Inequalities” research project. 

Prior to this, Mihaela worked for about six months as a research assistant for Dr Alex Money in the Digital Africa Water Network and the Climate Compatible Growth projects. She researched on blended finance for sustainable water infrastructure projects. Mihaela holds an MA with distinction in Comparative Business Economics from University College London, where she was included on the Dean’s List for Academic Excellence. As part of her MA studies, she was a recipient of the Coopers Scholarship for Eastern European Masters Students from the Goodenough College in London. Mihaela also holds an undergraduate degree in Accounting and Management Information Systems from Babeș-Bolyai University in Romania.