INEQUALITY AND GROWTH IN THE UNITED STATES: EVIDENCE FROM A NEW STATE-LEVEL PANEL OF INCOME INEQUALITY MEASURES

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARK W. FRANK
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Inequality Measures

Trust in Government and the American Public’s Responsiveness to Rising Inequality

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 790-804 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
State Level ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Combine Data ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
The Relationship

The United States has become increasingly unequal. Income inequality has risen dramatically since the 1970s, yet public opinion toward redistribution has remained largely unchanged. This is puzzling, given Americans’ professed concern regarding, and knowledge of, rising inequality. I argue that trust in government can help to reconcile this. I combine data on state-level income inequality with survey data from the Cumulative American National Election Studies (CANES) from 1984 to 2016. I find that trust in government conditions the relationship between inequality and redistribution, with higher inequality prompting demand for government redistribution, but only among politically trustful individuals. This holds among conservatives and non-conservatives and among the affluent and non-affluent. These findings underscore the relevance of political trust in shaping attitudes toward inequality and economic redistribution and contribute to our understanding of why American public opinion has not turned in favor of redistribution during an era of rising income inequality.

Income inequality and the growth of redistributive spending in the United States (US) states: is there a link?

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tima T. Moldogaziev ◽  
James E. Monogan ◽  
Christopher Witko
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Us States ◽  
The Past ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Policy Models

AbstractProminent public policy models have hypothesised that rising income inequality will lead to more redistributive spending. Subsequent theoretical advancements and empirical research often failed to find a positive relationship between inequality and redistributive spending, however. Over the last few decades both income inequality and redistributive spending have been growing in the United States states. In this work, we consider whether temporal variation in inequality can explain variation in redistributive spending, while controlling for a number of factors that covary with redistributive spending in the states. In an analysis of data for 1976–2008, we find that higher levels of inequality are associated with greater redistributive spending, offering empirical evidence that fiscal policy at the state level responds to growing levels of income inequality. Considering the growing role of state governments in welfare provision during the past several decades, this finding is relevant for policy researchers and practitioners at all levels of government.

scholarly journals Deconstructing Income and Income Inequality Measures: A Crosswalk from Market Income to Comprehensive Income

2013 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 173-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Armour ◽  
Richard V Burkhauser ◽  
Jeff Larrimore
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Household Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Capital Gains ◽  
Income Growth ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Inequality Measures ◽  
Market Income ◽  
Return Data

Recent research on levels and trends in the United States in income inequality vary substantially in how they measure income. We show the sensitivity of alternative income measures in capturing income trends using a unified data set. Focusing solely on market income or including realized taxable capital gains based on IRS tax return data in more comprehensive household income measures will dramatically increase inequality growth compared to capital gains measures more in keeping with Haig-Simons principles. Using a measure of yearly accrued capital gains dramatically reduces observed growth in income inequality across the distribution, but also equalizes income growth since 1989.

scholarly journals Educational assortative mating in the United States and the effect on income inequality by household from 1960 to 2005

SURG Journal ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-51
Author(s):  
Kathryn Swierzewski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Educational Assortative Mating ◽  
Mating Market ◽  
Household Labour ◽  
The U.S

This study examines the effect assortative mating by education has on income inequality by household. In contrast to the majority of other literature in this field which focus on the United States (U.S.) as a whole, this study makes use of state-level data to examine the marriage mating market with respect to education attainment. It also examines how homogamous partnerships increase income inequality across households by analyzing changes in the Gini coefficient over time. Panel data for this analysis is from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS-International and IPUMS-USA) from the U.S. Census of the Population. Assortative mating by education is shown in this analysis to be a contributing factor to increasing inequality among homogamous heterosexual partnerships in the U.S. from 1960 to 2005. Keywords: assortative mating; education level; United States (state-level, from 1960-2005); income inequality (household); labour economics; welfare economics

scholarly journals State-level income inequality and mortality among infants born in the United States 2007–2010: A Cohort Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Pabayo ◽  
Daniel M. Cook ◽  
Guy Harling ◽  
Anastasia Gunawan ◽  
Natalie A. Rosenquist ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cohort Study ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Neonatal Mortality ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Z Score ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Infant Deaths

Abstract Background United States state-level income inequality is positively associated with infant mortality in ecological studies. We exploit spatiotemporal variations in a large dataset containing individual-level data to conduct a cohort study and to investigate whether current income inequality and increases in income inequality are associated with infant and neonatal mortality risk over the period of the 2007–2010 Great Recession in the United States. Methods We used data on 16,145,716 infants and their mothers from the 2007–2010 United States Statistics Linked Infant Birth and Death Records. Multilevel logistic regression was used to determine whether 1) US state-level income inequality, as measured by Z-transformed Gini coefficients in the year of birth and 2) change in Gini coefficient between 1990 and year of birth (2007–2010), predicted infant or neonatal mortality. Our analyses adjusted for both individual and state-level covariates. Results From 2007 to 2010 there were 98,002 infant deaths: an infant mortality rate of 6.07 infant deaths per 1000 live births. When controlling for state and individual level characteristics, there was no significant relationship between Gini Z-score and infant mortality risk. However, the observed increase in the Gini Z-score was associated with a small but significant increase likelihood of infant mortality (AOR = 1.03 to 1.06 from 2007 to 2010). Similar findings were observed when the neonatal mortality was the outcome (AOR = 1.05 to 1.13 from 2007 to 2010). Conclusions Infants born in states with greater changes in income inequality between 1990 and 2007 to 2010 experienced a greater likelihood of infant and neonatal mortality.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document