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Abstract Given a permutation statistic$$\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}$$, define its inverse statistic$$\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}$$by. We give a general approach, based on the theory of symmetric functions, for finding the joint distribution of$$\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$$and$$\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}_{2}$$whenever$$\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$$and$$\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{2}$$are descent statistics: permutation statistics that depend only on the descent composition. We apply this method to a number of descent statistics, including the descent number, the peak number, the left peak number, the number of up-down runs and the major index. Perhaps surprisingly, in many cases the polynomial giving the joint distribution of$$\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$$and$$\operatorname {\mathrm {ist}}_{2}$$can be expressed as a simple sum involving products of the polynomials giving the (individual) distributions of$$\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{1}$$and$$\operatorname {\mathrm {st}}_{2}$$. Our work leads to a rederivation of Stanley’s generating function for doubly alternating permutations, as well as several conjectures concerning real-rootedness and$$\gamma $$-positivity.