Dr. Lynch's work lies at the intersection of political behavior and political economy in Western European countries. Areas of special interest include Italian politics and comparative social policy. Her forthcoming book, Age in the Welfare State: The Origins of Social Spending on Pensioners, Workers and Children, asks why some welfare states allocate the vast majority of their resources to the elderly, while others do more for children and working-aged adults. Her current work investigates the institutional foundations of public beliefs about fairness in the distribution of income, health and education. She has been a research scholar at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and has received grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and Luxembourg Income Study project. Professor Lynch is co-director of the Penn-Temple European Studies Colloquium. PhD. University of California at Berkeley.