The eldest son of Olof Palme, former prime minister of Sweden, he is a sociologist and Professor of Political Science at Uppsala University, where he also directs the Centre for Labour Studies. He specialises in social policies from a comparative perspective, with an emphasis on the Swedish pension model, and is also an expert with a solid empirical basis on the social and economic efficiency of public pension systems. He has carried out several studies on the welfare state as an equality strategy, European welfare policies, income redistribution and mixed (public-private) social protection systems, ageing societies, social investment and migration. Responsible for research projects focusing on the effects of the global financial crisis, with a special focus on the political and social relations between European countries, he has participated in various Swedish government commissions and was CEO of the Institute for Futures Studies in Copenhagen. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, Chairman of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee "Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy", Chairman of the Migration Studies Delegation (Delmi) and a member of UNRISD (UN Research Institute for Social Development). In 2017, he was appointed by the Secretary-General of the UN to head the Swedish Institute for Social Research, a position he currently holds.