Hout, Michael

Michael Hout (born May 14, 1950) is a professor of sociology at New York University. He previously served as a professor at the University of Arizona and University of California, Berkeley. Hout has studied social inequality, religion, and politics using demographic methods. Much of his research concerns social mobility, with demographic analyses focused on revealing the social facts that block opportunity and create unfairness, while controlling the effects of confounding variables. His other work has examined changing occupational hierarchies and long-term trends associated with political polarization. He measured the decisive effect of education on social mobility and explored the persistent and evolving role of social class. His influential study of Ireland quantified the effects of factors including class, education, religion, and geography, and complicated the idea that industrialization is accompanied by reduction in inequality. Hout's sociological approach relies on detailed statistical analyses of large surveys and census data—in common with Otis Duncan and Peter Blau, and earlier Paul Lazarsfeld—and he is responsible for numerous methodological innovations. He has also published books that summarize and expand on the topics of his research in a more accessible style, including Following in Father's Footsteps: Social Mobility in Ireland, Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth, The Truth about Conservative Christians: What They Think and What They Believe, and Century of Difference.