Publications

O’Brien, Shay. 2026. “Kinship Interlocks: How the Intimate Exchange of Wealth, Status, and Power Generates Upper-Class Persistence.” American Sociological Review 91(2):191-226. (Replication package.)

O’Brien, Shay. 2026. “Rethinking New and Old Money.” Pp. 107-123 in The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Global Elites, eds. María Luisa Méndez, Annette Lareau, and Mike Savage.

O’Brien, Shay. 2025. “Unnatural Wills: Inheritance Disputes and Inequality.” British Journal of Sociology special issue on Families and Wealth.

O’Brien, Shay. 2025. “The Gender of Inheritance in an Upper-Class Family Network: Dallas, 1895-1945.” Socio-Economic Review 23(2):621-644.

O’Brien, Shay and Shamus Khan. 2025. “Centering the Family in Elite Studies.” Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia. 1:109-140. (Equally co-authored.)

O’Brien, Shay. 2024. “The Family Web: Multigenerational Class Persistence in Elite Populations.” Socio-Economic Review 20(1):1-27.

other academic writing

O’Brien, Shay; Interviewed by Allison Wigen. 2025. “Elite Multigenerational Class Persistence: An Interview with Shay O’Brien.” Accounts Spring Issue, p. 4-8.

O’Brien, Shay. 2025. Review of Born to Rule by Aaron Reeves and Sam Friedman. ASA Culture Newsletter Winter Issue, p. 11-13.

O’Brien, Shay. 2025. “The Gender of Inheritance: The Curious Case of the Early 20th-Century Dallas Elite.” Contexts blog.