Zipf's Law, Pareto's Law, and the Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuhei Aoki ◽  
Makoto Nirei
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Zipf’S Law ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Productivity Shocks ◽  
Zipf's Law ◽  
Top Incomes ◽  
Pareto’S Law

We construct a tractable neoclassical growth model that generates Pareto's law of income distribution and Zipf's law of the firm size distribution from idiosyncratic, firm-level productivity shocks. Executives and entrepreneurs invest in risk-free assets, as well as their own firms' risky stocks, through which their wealth and income depend on firm-level shocks. By using the model, we evaluate how changes in tax rates can account for the evolution of top incomes in the United States. The model matches the decline in the Pareto exponent of the income distribution and the trend of the top 1 percent income share in recent decades. (JEL D31, H24, L11)

scholarly journals Top Incomes in Germany, 1871–2014

2019 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 669-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bartels
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Turn Of The Millennium ◽  
Top Incomes ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Top Income Shares ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Income Concentration

This study provides new evidence on top income shares in Germany from industrialization to the present. Income concentration was high in the nineteenth century, dropped sharply after WWI and during the hyperinflation years of the 1920s, then increased rapidly throughout the Nazi period beginning in the 1930s. Following the end of WWII, German top income shares returned to 1920s levels. The German pattern stands in contrast to developments in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where WWII brought a sizeable and lasting reduction in top income shares. Since the turn of the millennium, income concentration in Germany has been on the rise and is today among the highest in Europe. The capital share is consistently positively associated with income concentration, whereas growth, technological change, trade, unions, and top tax rates are positively associated in some periods and negative in others.

Inflation Inequality: Measurement, Causes, and Policy Implications

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Jaravel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Optimal Taxation ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date

Does inflation vary across the income distribution? This article reviews the growing literature on inflation inequality, describing recent advances and opportunities for further research in four areas. First, new price index theory facilitates the study of inflation inequality. Second, new data show that inflation rates decline with household income in the United States. Accurate measurement requires granular price and expenditure data because of aggregation bias. Third, new evidence quantifies the impacts of innovation and trade on inflation inequality. Contrary to common wisdom, empirical estimates show that the direction of innovation is a significant driver of inflation inequality in the United States, whereas trade has similar price effects across the income distribution. Fourth, inflation inequality and non-homotheticities have important policy implications. They transform cost-benefit analysis, optimal taxation, the effectiveness of stabilization policies, and our understanding of secular macroeconomic trends—including structural change, the decline in the labor share and interest rates, and labor market polarization. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Economics, Volume 13 is August 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Book Reviews

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 659-661
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Income Growth ◽  
University Of Michigan

Charles Brown of University of Michigan reviews “United States Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality” edited by Diana Furchtgott-Roth. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Ten papers examine income trends, consumption, wealth, and inequality in the United States, focusing on the root causes of income growth and inequality, as well as ways to measure income and income distribution.”

Economic Policy

2019 ◽  
pp. 173-195
Author(s):  
William Keech ◽  
William Scarth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Sustainable Fiscal Policy

This chapter identifies the differing policies and outcomes that Canadians and Americans have pursued with respect to economic growth, stabilization, and income distribution, and it analyzes several factors that can partially explain why divergent policy choices have emerged. The United States (U.S.) has recorded better productivity growth, while Canada has achieved a more sustainable fiscal policy, a less fragile financial sector, and more generous distributional policies. These contrasting outcomes are related to differences in size and geography, in political culture, and in political institutions. The analysis also considers how much it may be possible for each country’s policymakers to benefit from the other’s experiences. While identifying some lessons in this regard, the authors conclude that the sheer difference in the size of the two economies affects which economic policies can be expected to be effective. As a result, it is concluded that convergence in economic policymaking will remain somewhat limited.

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