Time-Series Changes in Personal Income Inequality in the United States from 1939, with Projections to 1985: Comment

It is commonly thought that income distribution among people became more concentrated after the Civil War and that this direction continued until the turn of the century. We can look methodically at the income tax distributions from the Civil War period and compare them directly with the distributions arising from the income tax after 1912. We also have some data from the abortive income tax of 1894. After examining the various blocks of evidence, the conclusion will be made that inequality among upper-income groups did not increase during this period. It is necessary to emphasize that the present investigation is one of income and not of wealth. It might have been possible for the nonhuman wealth distribution among people to remain constant or to increase in inequality while the personal income distribution was decreasing in inequality.

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Social Class and Income Inequality in the United States: Ownership, Authority, and Personal Income Distribution from 1980 to 2010

American Journal of Sociology ◽

10.1086/684273 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 121 (5) ◽

pp. 1375-1415 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Geoffrey T. Wodtke

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Social Class ◽

Income Inequality ◽

Income Distribution ◽

The United States ◽

Personal Income

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Consumption Inequality over the Last Half Century: Some Evidence Using the New PSID Consumption Measure

The American Economic Review ◽

10.1257/aer.104.5.122 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 104 (5) ◽

pp. 122-126 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Orazio Attanasio ◽

Luigi Pistaferri

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Time Series ◽

Income Inequality ◽

Great Recession ◽

The United States ◽

The Great Recession ◽

Consumption Data ◽

Long Time ◽

Imputation Procedure

This paper contributes to the debate regarding trends in consumption inequality in the United States. We present a new measure of consumption inequality based on the redesigned 1999-2011 PSID. We impute consumption to the families observed before 1999 using the more comprehensive consumption data available from 1999 onward. One advantage of this procedure is in sample verification of the quality of the imputation procedure; another is that it yields a long time series (1967-2010). Consumption inequality was stable in the 1970s, as was income inequality. It increased significantly after 1980. The Great Recession was associated with a decline in consumption inequality.

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