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Author: Jaclyn Butler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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This dissertation examines the economic, demographic, and social dynamics of income inequality in the United States. Income inequality is high, and rising, in the United States. Given that income inequality is associated with adverse societal outcomes, it is important to understand the causes and consequences of income inequality. The first chapter examines the effects of manufacturing employment on inequality in U.S. counties, and builds on prior research by disaggregating this sector into the durable and non-durable subsectors. I find that the effects of each subsector vary over time (1990 to 2016) and by county rural-urban status. The protective effects of both durable and nondurable manufacturing have weakened over time in both rural and urban counties, but disproportionately so in urban counties. By the end of the study period, the protective effect of both subsectors was only detected in rural counties. The second chapter examines the effects of population aging on income inequality in U.S. commuting zones and examines whether these effects vary between the mechanisms of aging: aging-in-place and retirement migration. Income inequality is measured as change in the overall level of income inequality and as the shifting shape of the income distribution from 2000 to 2010. I find evidence that population aging's effect on income inequality varies by the aging mechanism. Population aging in the context of aging-in-place decreases income shares in the middle of the distribution. Population aging in the context of retirement migration increases the overall level of income inequality, decreases income shares at the bottom of the distribution, and increases income shares at the top of the distribution. The third chapter examines whether and how people living and working in a high-inequality context perceive the economic and social dynamics of income inequality. Using a case study approach, this chapter uses interview data from 12 study participants to understand the perceptions, causes, and consequences of income inequality in Hancock County, Maine. The findings indicate that participants accurately perceive that income inequality is high, and increasing, in Hancock County. Participants discussed the community's status as a New England summer colony and major tourist destination, which concentrates employment growth in the lower-wage and seasonal service industry. Participants also expressed concern that the housing affordability crisis and the AirBnB economy have hollowed out the sense of community among working- and family-aged residents with lower to moderate incomes. These three papers provide unique insight into the economic, demographic, and social dynamics of income inequality. Their distinctive contributions include analysis of the underlying components of two major economic and demographic processes in the United States (deindustrialization and population aging), as well as qualitative insight into the social dynamics of income inequality in a high-inequality context.
Author: Jaclyn Butler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
This dissertation examines the economic, demographic, and social dynamics of income inequality in the United States. Income inequality is high, and rising, in the United States. Given that income inequality is associated with adverse societal outcomes, it is important to understand the causes and consequences of income inequality. The first chapter examines the effects of manufacturing employment on inequality in U.S. counties, and builds on prior research by disaggregating this sector into the durable and non-durable subsectors. I find that the effects of each subsector vary over time (1990 to 2016) and by county rural-urban status. The protective effects of both durable and nondurable manufacturing have weakened over time in both rural and urban counties, but disproportionately so in urban counties. By the end of the study period, the protective effect of both subsectors was only detected in rural counties. The second chapter examines the effects of population aging on income inequality in U.S. commuting zones and examines whether these effects vary between the mechanisms of aging: aging-in-place and retirement migration. Income inequality is measured as change in the overall level of income inequality and as the shifting shape of the income distribution from 2000 to 2010. I find evidence that population aging's effect on income inequality varies by the aging mechanism. Population aging in the context of aging-in-place decreases income shares in the middle of the distribution. Population aging in the context of retirement migration increases the overall level of income inequality, decreases income shares at the bottom of the distribution, and increases income shares at the top of the distribution. The third chapter examines whether and how people living and working in a high-inequality context perceive the economic and social dynamics of income inequality. Using a case study approach, this chapter uses interview data from 12 study participants to understand the perceptions, causes, and consequences of income inequality in Hancock County, Maine. The findings indicate that participants accurately perceive that income inequality is high, and increasing, in Hancock County. Participants discussed the community's status as a New England summer colony and major tourist destination, which concentrates employment growth in the lower-wage and seasonal service industry. Participants also expressed concern that the housing affordability crisis and the AirBnB economy have hollowed out the sense of community among working- and family-aged residents with lower to moderate incomes. These three papers provide unique insight into the economic, demographic, and social dynamics of income inequality. Their distinctive contributions include analysis of the underlying components of two major economic and demographic processes in the United States (deindustrialization and population aging), as well as qualitative insight into the social dynamics of income inequality in a high-inequality context.
Author: Ms.Era Dabla-Norris
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513547437
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 39
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This paper analyzes the extent of income inequality from a global perspective, its drivers, and what to do about it. The drivers of inequality vary widely amongst countries, with some common drivers being the skill premium associated with technical change and globalization, weakening protection for labor, and lack of financial inclusion in developing countries. We find that increasing the income share of the poor and the middle class actually increases growth while a rising income share of the top 20 percent results in lower growth—that is, when the rich get richer, benefits do not trickle down. This suggests that policies need to be country specific but should focus on raising the income share of the poor, and ensuring there is no hollowing out of the middle class. To tackle inequality, financial inclusion is imperative in emerging and developing countries while in advanced economies, policies should focus on raising human capital and skills and making tax systems more progressive.
Author: Shin Chang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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This study investigates the relevant factors that drive income and wealth inequality in the United States with the aim of facilitating a better understanding of the dynamic relationships between inequality and key macroeconomic variables. This can serve as a prerequisite to the ability of policymakers to restrain the negative externalities associated with increasing inequality and implement measures to reduce the unexpected effects. The thesis consists of five independent papers corresponding to five chapters. As economic growth is a primary goal of every country and widely accepted tool for reducing economic inequality, our study starts with economic growth. The first paper examines the relationship between the U.S. per capita real GDP and income inequality over the period 1917 to 2012. The literature uncovers a complex set of interactions, which depends on the specific research method and sample, between inequality and economic growth and highlights the difficulty of capturing a definitive causal relationship. Inequality either promotes, retards, or does not affect growth. Most existing studies that examine the inequality-growth nexus exclusively utilize time-domain methods. We use wavelet analysis which allows the simultaneous examination of correlation and causality between the two series in both the time and frequency domains. We find robust evidence of positive correlation between the growth and inequality across frequencies. Yet, directions of causality vary across frequencies and evolve with time. In the time-domain, the time-varying nature of long-run causalities implies structural changes in the two series. These findings provide a more thorough picture of the relationship between the U.S. per capita real GDP and inequality measures over time and frequency, suggesting important implications for policy makers. Inflation targeting is a monetary policy where the central bank sets a specific inflation rate as its goal. The federal government spurs economic growth by adding liquidity, credit, and jobs to the economy and inflation stimulate the demand needed to drive economic growth. The second paper investigates the effects of the inflation rate on income inequality to see whether monetary policy and the resulting inflation rate can affect income inequality and improve the well-being of individuals. Our analysis relies on a cross-state panel for the United States over the 1976 to 2007 period to assess the relationship between income inequality and the inflation rate, employing a semiparametric instrument variable (IV) estimator. By using cross-state panel data, we minimize the problems associated with data comparability often encountered in cross-country studies related to income inequality. We find that the relationship depends on the level of the inflation rate. A positive relationship occurs only if the states exceed a threshold level of the inflation rate. Below this value, inflation rate lowers income inequality. The results suggest that a nonlinear relationship exists between income inequality and the inflation rate. The researchers also examine the relationship between income inequality and growth in personal income, since personal income exerts a large effect on consumer consumption, and since consumer spending drives much of the economy. The third paper investigates the causal relationship between personal income and income inequality in a panel data of 48 states for the period of 1929-2012. Although inequality rose almost everywhere between 1980 to present, some states and regions experienced substantially greater increases in inequality than did others. The decentralization allows different state level of policies, however, there is also a cross-state consistency in how those policies respond to the main economic shocks. Since U.S. states are subject to significant spatial effects given their high level of integration, ignoring cross-sectional dependency may lead to substantial bias and size distortions. We employ a causality methodology proposed by Emirmahmutoglu and Kose (2011), as it takes into account possible slope heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependency in a multivariate panel. Evidence of bi-directional causal relationship exists for several inequality measures -- the Atkinson Index, Gini Coefficient, the Relative Mean Deviation, TheiliÌ8℗¿℗ưs entropy Index and Top 10% -- but no evidence of the causal relationship for the Top 1 % measure. Also, this paper finds state-specific causal relationships between personal income and inequality. The level of development of the United States is related to the sophistication of the financial structure which influences the ability to hedge against shocks and to loosen spending constraints. It leads us to investigate if the financial development affects income inequality in the U.S. In the fourth paper, we look into the role of financial development on U.S. state-level income inequality in a panel data of 50 states from 1976 to 2011. To our knowledge, this paper is the first regarding examining the role of financial development on U.S. state-level inequality. We analyze the data using Fixed Effect and Dynamic Fixed Effect regression. We also divide 50 states into two groups-states, with higher inequality measure and states with lower inequality measures than average of the cross-state average of the inequality, to examine the possible nonlinear impact of financial development on income inequality. We find robust results whereby financial development linearly increases income inequality for the 50 states. When we divide 50 states into two separate groups of higher and lower inequality states than the cross-state average inequality, the effect of financial development on income inequality appears non-linear. When financial development improves, the effect increases at an increasing rate for high income inequality states, whereas an inverted U-shaped relationship exists for low-income inequality states.
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309452961
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 583
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Book Description
In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.
Author: Sheldon H. Danziger
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 161044146X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 299
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Inequality has been on the rise in America for more than two decades. This socially divisive trend began in the economic doldrums of the 1970s and continued through the booming 1980s, when surging economic tides clearly failed to lift all ships. Instead, escalating inequality in both individual earnings and family income widened the gulf between rich and poor and led to the much-publicized decline of the middle class. Uneven Tides brings together a distinguished group of economists to confront the crucial questions about this unprecedented rise in inequality. Just how large and pervasive was it? What were its principal causes? And why did it continue in the 1980s, when previous periods of national economic growth have generally reduced inequality? Reviewing the best current evidence, the essays in Uneven Tides show that rising inequality is a complex phenomenon, the result of a web of circumstances inherent in the nation's current industrial, social, and political situation. Once attributed to the rising supply of inexperienced workers—as baby boomers, new immigrants, and women entered the labor market—the growing inequality in individual earnings is revealed in Uneven Tides to be the direct result of the economy's increasing demand for skilled workers. The authors explore many of the possible causes of this trend, including the employment shift from manufacturing to the service sector, the heightened importance of technology in the workplace, the decline of unionization, and the intensified efforts to compete in a global marketplace. Uneven Tides also examines the equally dramatic growth in the inequality of family income, and reviews the effects of family size, the age and education of household heads, and the transition to both two-earner and single-parent families. Although these demographic shifts played a role, what emerges most clearly is an understanding of the powerful influence of public policy, as increasingly regressive taxes, declining welfare benefits, and a stagnant minimum wage continue to amplify the effects of market forces on income. With the rise in inequality now much in the headlines, it is clear that our nation's ability to reverse these shifting currents requires deeper understanding of their causes and consequences. Uneven Tides is the first book to get beyond the news stories to a clear analysis of the changing fortunes of America's families. It should be required reading for anyone with a serious interest in the economic underpinnings of the country's social problems.
Author: Irma Adelman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business cycles
Languages : en
Pages : 440
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Author: Jonathan Heathcote
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437934919
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 61
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The authors conducted a systematic empirical study of cross-sectional inequality in the U.S., integrating data from various surveys. The authors follow the mapping suggested by the household budget constraint from individual wages to individual earnings, to household earnings, to disposable income, and, ultimately, to consumption and wealth. They document a continuous and sizable increase in wage inequality over the sample period. Changes in the distribution of hours worked sharpen the rise in earnings inequality before 1982, but mitigate its increase thereafter. Taxes and transfers compress the level of income inequality, especially at the bottom of the distribution, but have little effect on the overall trend. Charts and tables. This is a print-on-demand publication; it is not an original.
Author: Ludmila Rovba
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 350
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Author: Francisco Alberto Castellanos Sosa
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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This dissertation studies income inequality in the United States during the last two decades. The connections income inequality has with other topics and its measurement features allow for its exploration from different perspectives, giving origin to the overarching objective of this dissertation. To examine contemporaneous U.S. income inequality under two of the three stands it might take in any research process: a phenomenon itself and a dependent (outcome) variable. Therefore, the chapters in this dissertation position income inequality under a different spotlight, using a wide array of quantitative methodologies. Income inequality is first considered a phenomenon and disaggregated under Liao's (2016) decomposition at an in-vogue geographical level: Commuting Zones. Such decomposition helps identify the within-share element from a commonly shared income range across all local labor markets and the within-differentiation arising from the differences across the income distributions. Then, it is possible to identify the degree to which the within, between, within-share, and within-differentiations inequality dynamics drive its overall increasing pattern. This approach identifies, through the between component, those local labor markets exerting the most influence in the overall measure. The second perspective considers income inequality as a dependent variable throughout the study of income effects at different parts of its distribution and directly on traditional measures. In doing so, the quasi-random staggered implementation of the Secure Communities program (hereon referred to as SC) is exploited. SC is, in a few words, a federal program to strengthen immigration enforcement efforts across different levels of government agencies. Short-term effects of SC on income inequality are obtained using the improved doubly robust difference-in-differences (DiD) estimator weighted for multiple treatment periods (DRIMP) proposed by Callaway and Sant’Anna (2021). Effects in overall wages, by gender and main education groups, by income deciles, and by traditional inequality measures are estimated
Author: Ilyana Maria Kuziemko
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780549042754
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 114
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The first essay considers the removal of the parole board's authority to release prisoners before the expiration of their sentence, a policy many states have adopted. I find that this reform discourages prisoners from making human-capital investments while incarcerated and increases recidivism upon release. Thus, not only have more Americans spent time in prison since the 1970s, they have done so in institutions with a diminishing ability to rehabilitate inmates.
