Varieties of Economic Elites? Preliminary Results From the World Elite Database (WED)

Felix Bühlmann; Caroline Ahler Christesen; Bruno Cousin; François Denord; Christoph Houman Ellersgaard; Paul Lagneau‐Ymonet; Anton Grau Larsen; Mike Savage; Sylvain Thine; Kevin Young; Pedro Araujo; Paola Arrigoni; Jorge Atria; Pierre Benz; Johanna Behr; Maria do Carmo Botelho; Asif Butt; Pedro Casanova; Luís Clemente‐Casinhas; Ana Castellani; Fabio Cescon; Joselle Dagnes; Hanna Debska; Anne‐Sophie Delval; Vitalina Dragun; Andreia Egas; Kajsa Emilsson; Xiaoguang Fan; Fan Fu; Julia Gentile; Orlando Gomes; Victoria Gronwald; Mariana Heredia; Johannes Hjellbrekke; Jorge Honório; Jie Huang; Johnathan Inkley; Håkan Johansson; Ilkka Koiranen; Aki Koivula; Hanna Kuusela; Gabriel Levita; Chao Ling; Peng Lu; Michael Lukas; Jacob Lunding; Mina Mahmoudzadeh; Sean McQuade; María Luisa Méndez; Nuno Nunes; Shay O'Brien; Gabriel Otero; Marta Pagnini; Alejandro Pelfini; Jéssica Pereira; Catalina Roa; Thierry Rossier; Marte Lund Saga; Dulce Santana; Christian Schneickert; Elisabeth Schimpfössl; François Schoenberger; Izaura Solipa; Łukasz Trembaczowski; Maren Toft; Sofia Vale; Pedro Vasconcelos; Jorge Quesada Velazco; Tomasz Warczok; Xinguo Yu

doi:10.1111/1468-4446.13203

Varieties of Economic Elites? Preliminary Results From the World Elite Database (WED)

Felix Bühlmann, Caroline Ahler Christesen, Bruno Cousin, François Denord, Christoph Houman Ellersgaard, Paul Lagneau‐Ymonet, Anton Grau Larsen, Mike Savage, Sylvain Thine, Kevin Young, Pedro Araujo, Paola Arrigoni, Jorge Atria, Pierre Benz, Johanna Behr, Maria do Carmo Botelho, Asif Butt, Pedro Casanova, Luís Clemente‐Casinhas, Ana CastellaniFabio Cescon, Joselle Dagnes, Hanna Debska, Anne‐Sophie Delval, Vitalina Dragun, Andreia Egas, Kajsa Emilsson, Xiaoguang Fan, Fan Fu, Julia Gentile, Orlando Gomes, Victoria Gronwald, Mariana Heredia, Johannes Hjellbrekke, Jorge Honório, Jie Huang, Johnathan Inkley, Håkan Johansson, Ilkka Koiranen, Aki Koivula, Hanna Kuusela, Gabriel Levita, Chao Ling, Peng Lu, Michael Lukas, Jacob Lunding, Mina Mahmoudzadeh, Sean McQuade, María Luisa Méndez, Nuno Nunes, Shay O'Brien, Gabriel Otero, Marta Pagnini, Alejandro Pelfini, Jéssica Pereira, Catalina Roa, Thierry Rossier, Marte Lund Saga, Dulce Santana, Christian Schneickert, Elisabeth Schimpfössl, François Schoenberger, Izaura Solipa, Łukasz Trembaczowski, Maren Toft, Sofia Vale, Pedro Vasconcelos, Jorge Quesada Velazco, Tomasz Warczok, Xinguo Yu

Society and Politics

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Abstract

The strategies, decisions and beliefs of those who occupy prominent positions of economic power have influence on very large corporations and the markets they dominate, on vast amounts of economic resources, and on the rules of the game. However, the sociology of elites faces a dual challenge: divergent conceptualisations of what can be considered as a position of economic power and internationally incompatible sources of information hinder comparative analysis. The World Elite Database (WED) addresses this dual challenge, by generating, based on a consistent definition, standardised data for 16 countries. This research note introduces WED, its construction principles, and presents preliminary findings on how economic elites differ across countries.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	663-673
Number of pages	11
Journal	British Journal of Sociology
Volume	76
Issue number	3
Early online date	27 Mar 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.13203
Publication status	Published - Jun 2025

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). The British Journal of Sociology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of London School of Economics and Political Science. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Funding

This research was partly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through Standard Grant ‘Taxing the Super‐Rich’ (ES/W012650/1). The ‘Open Elite Data project’ funded by SwissUniversities co‐financed the kick‐off meeting of the WED project with funds from the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique IEA grant ‘Comparing national power structures. A proof of concept of the World Elite Database (WED), based on France and Norway’. Throughout the 2022–2023 academic year, at the International Inequalities Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science, Paul Lagneau‐Ymonet was supported by the Leverhulme Trust, as part of its visiting professorship programme. Xinguo Yu was supported by the Youth Development Programme at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2024QQJH136). Xiaoguang Fan was supported by the National Science Fund of China (22ASH006). Hanna Kuusela's research was funded by the Academy of Finland (323488)

Keywords

Databases, Factual
Economics
Humans
Internationality

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10.1111/1468-4446.13203Licence: CC BY 4.0

British Journal of Sociology - 2025 - Bühlmann - Varieties of Economic Elites Preliminary Results From the World Elite
Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). The British Journal of Sociology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of London School of Economics and Political Science. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 2.19 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

Bühlmann, F., Christesen, C. A., Cousin, B., Denord, F., Ellersgaard, C. H., Lagneau‐Ymonet, P., Larsen, A. G., Savage, M., Thine, S., Young, K., Araujo, P., Arrigoni, P., Atria, J., Benz, P., Behr, J., Botelho, M. D. C., Butt, A., Casanova, P., Clemente‐Casinhas, L., ... Yu, X. (2025). Varieties of Economic Elites? Preliminary Results From the World Elite Database (WED). British Journal of Sociology, 76(3), 663-673. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.13203

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abstract = "The strategies, decisions and beliefs of those who occupy prominent positions of economic power have influence on very large corporations and the markets they dominate, on vast amounts of economic resources, and on the rules of the game. However, the sociology of elites faces a dual challenge: divergent conceptualisations of what can be considered as a position of economic power and internationally incompatible sources of information hinder comparative analysis. The World Elite Database (WED) addresses this dual challenge, by generating, based on a consistent definition, standardised data for 16 countries. This research note introduces WED, its construction principles, and presents preliminary findings on how economic elites differ across countries.",

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Bühlmann, F, Christesen, CA, Cousin, B, Denord, F, Ellersgaard, CH, Lagneau‐Ymonet, P, Larsen, AG, Savage, M, Thine, S, Young, K, Araujo, P, Arrigoni, P, Atria, J, Benz, P, Behr, J, Botelho, MDC, Butt, A, Casanova, P, Clemente‐Casinhas, L, Castellani, A, Cescon, F, Dagnes, J, Debska, H, Delval, AS, Dragun, V, Egas, A, Emilsson, K, Fan, X, Fu, F, Gentile, J, Gomes, O, Gronwald, V, Heredia, M, Hjellbrekke, J, Honório, J, Huang, J, Inkley, J, Johansson, H, Koiranen, I, Koivula, A, Kuusela, H, Levita, G, Ling, C, Lu, P, Lukas, M, Lunding, J, Mahmoudzadeh, M, McQuade, S, Méndez, ML, Nunes, N, O'Brien, S, Otero, G, Pagnini, M, Pelfini, A, Pereira, J, Roa, C, Rossier, T, Saga, ML, Santana, D, Schneickert, C, Schimpfössl, E, Schoenberger, F, Solipa, I, Trembaczowski, Ł, Toft, M, Vale, S, Vasconcelos, P, Velazco, JQ, Warczok, T & Yu, X 2025, 'Varieties of Economic Elites? Preliminary Results From the World Elite Database (WED)', British Journal of Sociology, vol. 76, no. 3, pp. 663-673. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.13203

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AU - Ellersgaard, Christoph Houman

AU - Lagneau‐Ymonet, Paul

AU - Larsen, Anton Grau

AU - Savage, Mike

AU - Thine, Sylvain

AU - Young, Kevin

AU - Araujo, Pedro

AU - Arrigoni, Paola

AU - Atria, Jorge

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AU - Gomes, Orlando

AU - Gronwald, Victoria

AU - Heredia, Mariana

AU - Hjellbrekke, Johannes

AU - Honório, Jorge

AU - Huang, Jie

AU - Inkley, Johnathan

AU - Johansson, Håkan

AU - Koiranen, Ilkka

AU - Koivula, Aki

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AU - Levita, Gabriel

AU - Ling, Chao

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AU - Lukas, Michael

AU - Lunding, Jacob

AU - Mahmoudzadeh, Mina

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AU - Méndez, María Luisa

AU - Nunes, Nuno

AU - O'Brien, Shay

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AU - Pagnini, Marta

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AU - Pereira, Jéssica

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AU - Vale, Sofia

AU - Vasconcelos, Pedro

AU - Velazco, Jorge Quesada

AU - Warczok, Tomasz

AU - Yu, Xinguo

N1 - Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). The British Journal of Sociology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of London School of Economics and Political Science. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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AB - The strategies, decisions and beliefs of those who occupy prominent positions of economic power have influence on very large corporations and the markets they dominate, on vast amounts of economic resources, and on the rules of the game. However, the sociology of elites faces a dual challenge: divergent conceptualisations of what can be considered as a position of economic power and internationally incompatible sources of information hinder comparative analysis. The World Elite Database (WED) addresses this dual challenge, by generating, based on a consistent definition, standardised data for 16 countries. This research note introduces WED, its construction principles, and presents preliminary findings on how economic elites differ across countries.

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KW - Economics

KW - Humans

KW - Internationality

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EP - 673

JO - British Journal of Sociology

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ER -

Varieties of Economic Elites? Preliminary Results From the World Elite Database (WED)

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