Wallerstein received his undergraduate education at the Stanford University, majoring in political science and graduating in 1974.
In particular, he studied the impact of labor market institutions, such as systems of collective bargaining, as well as the politics of income redistribution, such as social insurance and affirmative action.
He and Karl Ove Moene suggested that citizens don't see public pensions, unemployment insurance and sickness insurance as a form of residual redistribution from the rich to poor, but as a personal warranty to maintain their standard of living in the event of a job loss, an illness, or old age.
[1] Wallerstein continued the school of thought founded by his dissertation advisor Adam Przeworski and inspired by the democratic theory of Joseph Schumpeter, along with Michael Wallerstein, Stathis Kalyvas, Jose Cheibub, Leonard Wantchekon.
[2] Wallerstein was awarded the Franklin L. Burdette Pi Sigma Alpha Award in 1985 for the best paper presented at the American Political Science Association's 1984 annual meeting, and he later served on the APSA executive council.