Dr Selçuk Bedük

Selçuk is an interdisciplinary researcher with a background in economics and a DPhil in Social Policy from Oxford. His research focuses on poverty, inequality, and social policy, addressing central questions: how best to measure and respond to poverty; how inequality accumulates across the life course and is transmitted between generations; and which welfare systems most effectively reduce poverty and provide security for all.

Some of his current research examines:

  • the intergenerational persistence of homeownership in Europe (funded by an international Volkswagen Stiftung grant)
  • long-term childhood poverty in Britain (supported by a John Fell Fund grant)
  • the financial consequences of job loss in different welfare states
  • the conditions of the poorest households during the UK austerity period
  • the life-course earnings inequality in Britain

Selçuk was the inaugural Barnett Scholar and completed his DPhil at DSPI in 2018 with a thesis on poverty measurement in the EU. He re-joined the department in October 2021, having previously worked as a Senior Research Officer at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), University of Essex.

For a full list of publications, recent research and teaching activities, please see this personal website.

Publications

Bedük, S. & Fasang, A. Harkness, S. Andrade, S. Büyükkeçeci, Z. Helske, S. & Karhula, A. (2025) Insurance against risk? Economic cost and compensation of job loss in different welfare states Socio-Economic Review. 

Bedük, S. & Harkness, S. (2024) What explains intergenerational associations in home ownership and value in the UK? Investigating the transmission mechanisms. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 92,100951.  

Fasang, A., Andrade-Bastholm, S., Bedük, S., Büyükkeçeci, Z., Helske, S. & Karhula, A. (2024) Lives in welfare states: Life courses, earnings accumulation and relative living standards in five European countries.American Journal of Sociology 130(2) 

Bedük, S. (2023) Insured privately? Wealth stratification of job loss in the UK. Social Inclusion 11(1) 

Bedük, S. (2020) Missing dimensions of poverty? Calibrating deprivation scales using perceived financial situation. European Sociological Review. 36-4.

Bedük, S. (2018) Identifying People in Poverty: A Multidimensional Deprivation Measure for the EU. Barnett Papers in Social Research. 18-03.

Bedük, S. (2018) Understanding material deprivation for 25 EU countries: risk and level perspectives, and distinctiveness of zerosEuropean Sociological Review, 1-16. 

Bedük, S. (2018). Missing the Unhealthy? Examining Empirical Validity of Material Deprivation Indices Using a Partial Criterion VariableSocial Indicators Research, 1–25. 

Bedük, S. (2017) Measuring poverty in the EU: Investigating empirical validity of deprivation scales. University of Oxford.

Supervision

MSc in Comparative Social Policy

DPhil in Social Policy

Selçuk is interested in supervising DPhil students who intend to work on broad themes related to poverty, inequality and comparative social policy.

Current projects