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The article comments on the papers of Barry Bosworth and Robert J. Gordon about wage and price control in the U.S. I thought Bosworth's paper was excellent. I am grateful for the presentation and assembling of data that had not previously been properly correlated--for example, the reconciliation of Pay Board wage approvals with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on union wage settlements. Undoubtedly, a significant disinflation began with the freeze. Although individual estimates of the precise impact may vary, something significant happened at that point. Nonetheless, the data lead me to conclude that the impact of both the Price Commission and the Pay Board on actual prices and wages has been surprisingly small. First, the overall price situation indicates that, with the exception of a few building materials, few prices would be raised if the controls were removed. For example, recent evidence on the term limit pricing agreements indicates that, whereas the average approved price increase was about 2 percent, only a small proportion of these increases have been put into effect. Thus, it appears that because of weak market conditions, these firms were unable to raise their prices even with Price Commission approval. The wage side is a little more difficult to evaluate. The institution of a general wage standard would be expected to narrow the distribution of wage increases by reducing the larger increases.

Publicly available electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure is pivotal for the United States EV transition by 2030. Existing infrastructure lacks equitably distribution to low-income and underrepresented communities, impeding mass adoption. Our study, utilizing 2021 micro-level data from 121 million United States households, comprehensively examines income and racial disparities in EV infrastructure accessibility. Our analysis of national averages indicates that lower-income groups face less accessibility to public EV infrastructure in both urban and rural geographies. Black households experience less rural accessibility, but greater urban accessibility compared to White households conditioning on income. However, our localized analysis uncovers significant variations in accessibility gaps among counties, rural and urban settings, and dwelling types. While Black households experience greater urban accessibility nationally, a closer look at the county level reveals diminishing advantages. This study identifies areas with pronounced inequality and urgent needs for enhanced accessibility, emphasizing the necessity for tailored solutions by local governments to enhance equitable access to EV infrastructure. This paper finds that on average lower-income groups encounter reduced accessibility to public EV infrastructure in urban and rural areas. Black households have less rural accessibility, but greater urban accessibility compared to White households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on several articles about the economic development of the United States. Factors that changed income distribution in the country; Arguments on the growth of demand from capital-intensive subsectors.

Comments on an article about the agricultural productivity of Pennsylvania in 18th century. Discussion on economic development; Details of income distribution; Performance of the agriculture sector in the state.

Family economic mobility has been a policy concern for decades, with interest heating up further since the 1990s, especially as the inequality of the family income distribution in the United States has grown. Rising intragenerational mobility could offset some of the effects of rising cross-sectional inequality on longer-term or lifetime inequality, while falling intragenerational mobility would exacerbate such effects. The positions families occupy in the income distribution and the degree to which they are stuck or able to move up (or slide down) over time are critical determinants of their current well-being and their children's prospects. Using data that track individual families' incomes during overlapping 10-year periods from 1978 to 1988 through 2004–2014, this paper documents trends in intragenerational family mobility and investigates the relationships of family characteristics to mobility and whether the importance of those factors has changed over time or differs for shorter or longer periods. The paper measures intragenerational mobility using both relative and dollar-denominated indicators. Family characteristics include family structure, educational attainment and work behavior of the family head and spouse (if present), and time-invariant characteristics of the family head, such as race. The analysis also examines within-period changes in the time-varying factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper finds that capital and labor incomes in the United States have become more closely associated since the 1980s. This has contributed to the well-known increase in the top 1% share of total income, exacerbating rising inequality in capital incomes and earnings. We show that the trend in the association is U-shaped as the recent increase contrasts with a tendency toward a weakening association until the 1980s. The paper, using data derived from tax records, studies the asymmetries in the association and tests for robustness to alternative income definitions, including the role of income from closely held businesses at the top. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the effect on income of Phase II of the wage-price control program of the United States. Several discussants commented on the issue of income shares under the Phase II program. R. A. Gordon, William Branson, and others noted that, with productivity growing exceptionally fast because of the rapid cyclical expansion expected in the economy, profit margins would widen so much that some cost absorption by business would still permit the profit share to expand. Arthur Okun noted that Perry's neutrality was defined as the state of income shares that would prevail in the absence of the program and that the cyclical expansion of profit margins that we are experiencing would have occurred anyhow. Gardner Ackley argued that we did not know enough about what has happened to price-cost relations in recent years to take any strong position about what income shares should be. Therefore Perry's neutrality concept should not override the need to slow inflation, and some cost absorption was appropriate as a way to help accomplish this. James Duesenberry and Michael Posner felt that the most serious practical problem was not the question of existing income shares but rather delivering on the promise to slow prices noticeably. The trade unions are reluctant to accept wage controls because they have little faith that the inflation will slow down. Differing views were expressed on the use of profit margin ceilings in Phase II. Alan Greenspan pointed out that the application of the rules on the basis of the margins of individual firms would hold down overall prices and margins more than people thought.

Comments on an article about wealth inequality in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. Discussion on income distribution; Intergenerational wealth rankings in the country; Criteria on the aggregate wealth of rich families.

This paper studies the contribution of both labor and non-labor income in the growth in income inequality in the United States and large European economies. The paper first shows that the capital to labor income ratio disproportionately increased among high-earnings individuals, further contributing to the growth in overall income inequality. That said, the magnitude of this effect is modest, and the predominant driver of the growth in income inequality in recent decades is the growth in labor earnings inequality. Far more important than the distinction between total income and labor income, is the way in which educational factors account for the growth in US labor and capital income inequality. Growing income gaps among different education groups as well as composition effects linked to a growing fraction of highly educated workers have been driving these effects, with a noticeable role of occupational and locational factors for women. Findings for large European economies indicate that inequality has been growing fast in Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, though not in France. Capital income and education don't play as much as a role in these countries as in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the response of income concentration in the US to the occurrence of major systemic banking crises since the beginning of the twentieth century. In doing so, the paper analyzes the shape of the upper income tail as well as the national income shares accruing to different groups within the richest decile. The findings suggest that systemic banking crises reduce income concentration within the top decile of the US pre-tax and transfers income distribution, and more generally, that the effect is highly heterogeneous across different top income groups. While the richest income group loses ground, the lower half of the top decile appears to gain in relative terms. However, evidence suggests that the estimated short-term effect of market forces stemming from banking crises can be relatively small in magnitude and even temporary in nature, as it may be quickly reabsorbed. These findings lend indirect support to the idea that only substantial changes in government policies and institutional frameworks can bring about radical changes in income distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critics of U.S. corporate governance claim that public company (a) CEOs are overpaid, (b) CEOs are not paid for performance, and (c) boards do a poor job of compensating and monitoring CEOs. In this paper, I argue that the critics are wrong. While corporate governance and CEO pay are not perfect, a great deal of evidence suggests that CEO pay is largely determined by market forces. CEOs have been affected by the same forces that have increased income inequality. They have not done better than several similar groups. (In fact, average CEO pay declined in real terms from 2000 to 2006.) CEOs are strongly paid for performance. And boards do monitor CEOs. CEO tenures are lower than they have been since tenures began to be measured in the 1970s; CEO turnover is more closely tied to stock performance than it has been since turnover began to be studied in the 1970s. Increased transparency for CEO pay (required by the SEC), increased shareholder activism, and the increased prevalence of majority voting in director elections should further reduce any remaining unwise compensation practices. More regulation, such as the proposed "Say on Pay" bill to mandate a shareholder vote on executive compensation, is likely to impose costs with little additional benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most people in the United States agree they want some income inequality but debate exactly how much is fair. High‐status people generally prefer more inequality than low‐status individuals. Here we examine how much preferences for inequality are (or are not) driven by self‐interest. Past work has generally investigated this idea in two ways: The first is by stratifying preferences by income, and the second is by randomly assigning financial status within lab‐constructed scenarios. In this paper, we develop a method that combines both experimental control and the social experience of inequality—a simulated society experiment. Across two experiments (N = 138, observations = 690), participants voted on the distribution of rewards—first behind a veil of ignorance, and then when they were randomly assigned a status within a game of chance. Status varied repeatedly across five rounds, allowing us to measure dynamic preferences. Under the veil of ignorance, people preferred inequality favoring the top status. When the veil of ignorance disappeared, self‐interest immediately influenced inequality preferences. Those who randomly landed in top positions were satisfied with the status quo established under the veil of ignorance, whereas those who randomly landed in bottom positions wanted more equality. Yet these preferences were not stable; decisions about the optimal level of inequality changed according to changes in social status. Our results also showed that, when inequality grows in a society, preferences regarding inequality become polarized by social status. Individuals in low‐status positions, particularly, tend to demand more equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the neoliberal consensus about education finance has broken down due to growing economic inequality. First, I use a comparative historical analysis of political alliances to examine patterns of world trade and nations' policies for economic and educational development since World War II. The United States emphasized STEM-collegiate preparation for all students, while most countries continued the dual emphasis on technical-tertiary and higher education. Educational policy in the US and Pacific region also shifted towards a reliance on markets and student loans resulting in worsening economic inequality in access. Nations with dual technical and academic pathways in secondary and postsecondary education systems expand college enrollment rates more rapidly than the US. They also experience class conflict between the working–middle class and the new technological elite. Next, I examine how education policy shifted from national planning aligned with public funding to market-based incentives for institutional development, further exposing gaps in opportunity within nations. Finally, recognizing the variations in systemic causes of inequality, I argue that governments, education agencies, and civic activists can best promote equity by organizing to address barriers to opportunity for groups left behind in the wake of withering neoliberal education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising poverty in suburbs has led to increased interest in how well suburban safety nets function. Apart from public assistance programs, community-based nonprofit health and human service organizations play a central role in suburban efforts to address racial and economic inequalities. Understanding how nonprofit services are distributed across the suburban and urban landscape, therefore, is critical to assessing how communities may be able to address need. In this paper, we examine the presence and volatility of nonprofit health and human service expenditures in suburban and urban counties across the United States from 2000 to 2017. We find the nonprofit safety net to be more responsive in urban centers than in suburban places, and less robust in suburban areas experiencing high rates of poverty or with a larger share of residents who are Black. Nonprofit health and human service spending also appears less countercyclical than is commonly understood. Suburban-urban disparities in nonprofit health and human service spending persist after controlling for several county-level demographic and socioeconomic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on a paper published within the issue, "Taxation and the Incidence of Homeownership Across Income Groups," by Robert H. Litzenberger and Howard B. Sosin. The author feels that this paper is a generally sound framework for the analysis of homeownership incentives, but criticizes the its simplifying assumptions and the lackluster attention given to the impact of inflation. The author discusses the implication that a change in the paper's capital gains tax assumption strengthens the conclusions that are not adequately supported by the presented analysis.

This paper has evaluated the empirical usefulness of six different monetary aggregates for the period 1953-I through 1971-I and the two sub periods 1953-I through 1960-IV and 1961-I through 1971-I. When alternative adjustments are made for the disturbance created by the major industrial strikes of this period, it is found that changes in the narrow money stock have a greater capacity to explain movements in two different measures of income than either changes in bank credit or four broader definitions of money. Moreover, results from estimates of two alternative reduced form systems, in which changes in income are determined by changes in two monetary variables and man-days idled by strikes, also confirm that the narrow money stock was the most empirically useful monetary aggregate from 1953-I through 1971-I. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the importance of cost-of-living escalator clauses as a link between price changes and money wage changes. It surveys the possible kinds of price-wage linkages and estimates the importance of COLAs in overall wage changes in the economy. The author concludes that despite growth in the coverage and yields of escalator clauses since the mid-1960s, they still accounted in 1980 for less than 10 percent of total money wage changes in the U.S. economy and are therefore not a major cause of inflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Share buybacks, when a corporation buys back its own shares, are recognised as having potentially harmful impacts on society. This includes by contributing to economic inequalities, and by impeding investments with the potential to protect and promote the welfare of various stakeholders. Share buybacks, however, have received minimal analytical attention in the public health literature. This paper aimed to explore the potential influence of share buybacks on population health and health inequity using a socio-ecological determinants of health lens. Methods: We conducted a descriptive analysis of share buybacks made by corporations listed on United States (US) stock exchanges between 1982 and 2021, using quantitative data sourced from Compustat. We examined annual trends in share buyback expenditure, including comparisons to dividend, net income, capital expenditure, and research and development expenditure data. We then purposively sampled a set of corporations to provide illustrative examples of how share buybacks potentially influence key socio-ecological determinants of health. The examples were: i) three COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers; ii) five of the world's largest fossil fuel corporations; and iii) US car manufacturer General Motors. For these, we conducted an analysis of data from Compustat, company reports and grey literature materials, focusing on key sources of profits and their allocation to share buybacks and particular investments. Results: US-listed corporations spent an estimated US$9.2 trillion in real terms on share buybacks between 2012 and 2021 (nearly 12 times more than from 1982 to 1991). The contribution of share buybacks to total shareholder 'returns' increased from 11% in 1982 to 55% in 2021, with expenditure on shareholder returns increasing considerably relative to capital, research and development expenditure over this period. The three examples illustrated how some corporations have prioritised the short-term financial interests of their shareholders, including via implementing large share buyback programs, over investments with considerable potential to protect and promote the public's health. Conclusion: The potentially substantial impacts of share buybacks on health warrant increased research and policy attention. Arguably, more must be done to regulate share buybacks as part of efforts to address the corporate drivers of ill-health and inequity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) – including a BEA satellite account that imputes monetary values for unwaged household production – this paper provides a feminist, class-based framework for estimating the annual cost of social reproduction in the United States from 1959 to 2012. The key finding is that for US working-class households, the cost of socially reproducing labor-power has risen relative to the cost of employing labor-power, implying that employers are paying for a decreasing proportion of the total societal cost of socially reproducing labor-power. These results are discussed in relationship to growing income inequality and the contradictory role of the state in the US neoliberal era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines tax progressivity and income inequality using Census Bureau Current Population Survey (CPS) personal income data. The Kakwani index is used to derive tax progressivity for All, Male, Female, White and African American personal wage income of CPS respondents, respectively. The tax progressivity results show a tax system that is partly progressive and mostly regressive. Due to its regressive nature, the tax system did not display tax progressivity for the entire period under analysis for personal wage income respondents as well as when broken-down by race and gender in the United States for years 1996 to 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the expansion of clientele’s demographics and international transactions, many law firms began to open doors to non-mainstreamers—minority lawyers to join the legal workforce. Decades have passed and the inequality in compensation between minority and non-minority attorneys is still one of the most controversial issues in the legal profession. Based on human capital and labor discrimination theory, we examine the productivity and compensation differences between minority attorneys and non-minority counterparts. The sample consists of 554 firm-year observations of the 200 largest U.S law firms from 2013 to 2016. We use OLS with clustered standard errors by year. We find minority partners are more likely to provide relatively routine and template-based services, which do not command fee premium, which results in low productivity of minority partners. We find that minority partners are compensated less than their non-minority counterparts after controlling for productivity. This paper aids in the understanding of diversity in the workplace and the effect of diversity on a firms’ productivity and the type of services to provide. Also, this paper has implications on the compensation gap between minorities and their non-minority counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines attitudes toward taxes on the rich and middle class in the United States with emphasis on the impacts of political ideology and party identification. Using the 2016 General Social Survey, we estimate bivariate ordered probit models for a full cross-sectional sample, and subsamples stratified by party. Results suggest that proposals to reduce income and wealth inequalities and/or fund large federal expenditure increases by raising taxes on the rich will have difficulty in gaining the political traction necessary for success. Any proposal to raise taxes on both the rich and middle class has almost no chance of passage. Findings also indicate that party affiliation moderates ideological impacts on opinions of taxes on the rich and middle class, in some cases substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines historical cross-sectional and longitudinal data in the United States to study the evolution of absolute intragenerational mobility over periods of four years. Absolute intragenerational mobility over such periods is procyclical and is largely confined within 45%–55%. We also find that absolute mobility decreases with income. Individuals and families occupying the lower ranks of the income distribution have a higher probability of increasing their income over short time periods than those occupying higher ranks. This also occurs during periods of increasing inequality. Our findings stem from the importance of the changes in the composition of income ranks. These changes are over and above mechanical labor market dynamics, such as entering and exiting the labor force, and life cycle effects. We offer a simplified model to mathematically describe these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents discussions by economists on papers by economists James N. Morgan and James D. Smith that was published in the May 1, 1970 issue of the journal "American Economic Review." The author states that the two papers presented by Morgan and Smith reflect changing times. According to the author, income distribution and especially the distribution at the low end are back in the spotlight as an issue of social policy and appropriately it is eliciting scientific attention. Early in the 1960's, concern with sharing the national economic pie was eclipsed by the urgent concern about the lagging growth of the pie. Economists were wise to focus on the aggregative issues in the early 1960's and it is wise to shift focus onto distributive issues as one enters the 1970's. Now that the U.S. has reaped important benefits of economic growth and high employment, other problems deserve emphasis. Both of the present papers make a contribution to that knowledge. They reflect different methodological approaches and stress different issues. They do share one substantive characteristic, pointing to the importance of labor force participation by the wife as a key determinant of family income and income changes.

Presents reactions to the conference papers in relation to economic inequality in the United States. Increase of inequality in the United States; Effect of inequality to society; Policy implications.

This paper studies the sensitivity of long-run trends in top income shares to differences in top-share measures. While the standard measure fixes a share of the population, we define alternatives that allow variation in both incomes and size of the top group based on defining absolute income thresholds. In an application to United States data, we find that top income share trends over the past century vary somewhat depending on the measure used. Allowing top groups to increase in size after 1980 along with overall economic growth results in a larger increase of top income shares. The historical drops before WWII are sensitive to the choice of income deflator: using GDP inflates interwar top income shares but using CPI deflates them. Altogether, these results recommend using complementary approaches to defining top income groups when measuring long-term top income share trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I estimate the impact of unproductive activities on economic growth, labour productivity and income inequality in the United States from 1947 to 2011. Productive activities directly create value, while unproductive activities do not. I develop a new methodology to compute the growth of productive and unproductive activities in terms of flows of income and stocks of fixed assets using input-output matrices and national income accounts. A core feature of my methodology is the notion that the commodification of knowledge and information gives rise to 'information rents'. Information rents are, as I demonstrate, a determinant factor of growth and distribution. I find that unproductive activities have a net positive effect on economic growth and labour productivity, but at the price of increasing income inequality. Unproductive activities that rely on information rents, in particular, have increased income inequality and slowed down value-added growth despite their positive contribution to labour productivity. Information rents have drawn too much value from productive activities and benefitted the top income earners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to seek to apply Polanyi's theory of the double movement as a response to the effects of economic liberalization and globalization to the pre-2007 American economy. In so doing, it seeks to ascertain the reasons why this assumed double movement did not materialize until after the post-2007 global economic crisis. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is structured as a theoretical and historical analysis, building upon Polanyi's nineteenth century observations and applying them to contemporary policy economic and social experience in the USA in the late twentieth century. The argument proposes a correlation between the missing and/or delayed movement and the role of access to debt and participation in equity markets. Findings – This paper argues that Polanyi's concept of a societal countermovement has been absent from the post-1970 period of economic liberalism and globalization until just recently due to an explicit attempt by the forces of capital to circumvent its role in lessening the harmful effects of American capitalism. In particular, the double movement that should have sought to lessen income inequality, unemployment and wage stagnation was instead replaced by access to cheap credit and the democratization of market investments that spurred consumer purchases and a false belief that what was good for the markets was good for working class Americans. Research limitations/implications – This paper highlights the need for ongoing research into the sociotropic nature of trade and of economic policy, and its evolution throughout the contemporary period of economic uncertainty and economic transition. Practical implications – The paper proposes several policy implications arising from the contemporary application of Polanyi's double movement, notably related to international trade and public and political support for ongoing trade liberalization. Social implications – This paper highlights important connections in the relationship between economic policy and the day-to-day lives of those who are governed by it. Building on "everyday political economy", it provides a foundation for arguments that a new balance must be found between economic globalization and transnational capital interests and domestic stability. Originality/value – This paper promotes a novel approach to understanding the political economy of pre-2007 America, in particular the reflexive nature of economic policy and societal perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts with a review of a few selected papers on the magnitude, and trends in income inequality in the United States as a nation, at the state level, and internationally. Some of the potential determinants of income inequality in the United Sates are identified and briefly discussed as well. The paper then explores the relationship between industrial composition in the United States and income inequality. The primary finding is that there appears to be an association between the changes in the US manufacturing and services sectors and income inequality but not completely in the manner hypothesized in past research. Further increasing the size of the construction sector may provide the greatest reductions in income inequality. The paper concludes with a summary of the estimation results and some thoughts on the policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the effect of untraditional monetary policy on the financing constraints of companies. Topics covered include details of the maturity extension program of the Federal Reserve, system of monetary accounts in the U.S. and different alternative economic perspectives on monetary systems. Also mentioned are factors affecting monetary policy including economic growth, labor and income distribution.

Standard economic analysis predicts that increased U.S. trade with unskilled labor-abundant countries should reduce the relative wages of U.S. unskilled labor, but empirical studies in the 1990s found only a modest effect. Has the situation changed in this decade, given the surge in imports from very low wage countries? In fact, most of this increase has been in skill-intensive goods such as computers, so that one would expect little additional impact on U.S. relative wages. However, developing countries appear to be specializing in unskilled labor—intensive niches within these industries. If so, the effect on wage inequality could still be significant. The paper develops a model and a numerical example showing that when developing countries can take over the unskilled labor—intensive portions of vertically specialized industries, the consequences can closely resemble the textbook effect. But determining the actual impact will require more finely disaggregated factor content data than are currently available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an abstract of the paper `Income Growth and Inequality: Considering the New York Housing Censuses, 1855-1875,' by Lee Soltow, during the fifty-fifth annual meeting of the Economic History Association.

In this paper, I study how the contrasting coverage of labour and capital incomes affects inequality estimates. I use national accounts as a benchmark to evaluate the scope of household surveys, for a number of countries, and tax data for the United States. Due to both measurement error and conceptual differences, capital income is always more underestimated. In most countries, the gap grows during the last two decades. Based on accounting identities, I show that inequality estimates are likely affected in level, trend and composition. Surveys thus largely exaggerate the impact of changes in the labour income distribution, while they undermine the capital share and its dynamics. As a reference, in a panel of nineteen countries, households collect half of total capital income, as opposed to corporations; but surveys only capture close to twenty percent of that half, versus seventy percent of total labour income. For any quantile group –e.g. the top 10% or bottom 50% share– a unit increase of its labour income share translates into an increase of nine tenths of a unit in the overall share, for capital income, the effect is only one tenth of a unit. Gaps are narrower but still present in tax data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents critical discussion of two papers by George Garvy and Edward F. Denison on the distribution of national income. According to the author Garvy has expressed some doubt as to the existence of a long-term trend of diminishing income inequality. Both manners have also stressed the very crucial choice of income definitions and the basic family unit used in measuring inequality statistically. Garvy has also suggested an interesting change in the income unit used to measure inequality. The usual per capita income measure may be useful from a welfare standpoint or in relation to consumer demand. Commenting on the paper by Denison, the author says that he has identified the ordinary business sector and then, within that division, distinguished several farm and non-farm ownership forms and property income sources. At the end of his paper, Denison introduced the government as tax collector and payer of transfer incomes. The author applaud his remarks on the effect of taxes and transfers and regret that the scope of his paper could not have been somehow extended to include more discussion of income redistribution.

Using data from the Current Population Survey, we investigate the distributional consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated public policy response on labor earnings and unemployment benefits in the United States up until February 2021. We find that year-on-year changes in labor earnings for employed individuals were not atypical during the pandemic months, regardless of their initial position in the earnings distribution. The incidence of job loss, however, was substantially higher among low earners, leading to a dramatic increase in labor income inequality among the set of individuals who were employed prior to the onset of the pandemic. By providing very high replacement rates for individuals displaced from low-paying jobs, the initial public policy response was successful in reversing the regressive nature of the pandemic's impacts. We estimate, however, that recipiency rates for displaced low earners were lower than for higher earners. Moreover, from September 2020 onwards, when policy changes led to a decline in benefit levels, earnings changes became less progressive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There have been a number of studies analyzing the impact of unions on labor's share of income. Most have relied on either time series or cross-section data. The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of unions on labor's share of income in the U.S. This study adds to the understanding of this topic by developing an analytical model of imperfect competition and estimating the model using panel data for the manufacturing sector. This study finds that unions have a positive impact on labor's share of income. Specifically, this paper finds that labor's share declined 17.9 percent between 1997 and 2006 whereas, if unionization density had remained at its 1997 level, labor's share would have declined only 13.9 percent. Thus, the decline in unionization explains about 29 percent of the decline in labor's share of income. This paper is important for three reasons. First, this paper sheds light on whether social and institutional forces play an important role in determining the distribution of income between labor and capital. Second, it helps to explain recent increases in wage inequality. Third, it has implications for understanding the potential impact of legislation, such as the Employee Free Choice Act, that would make it easier for workers in the U.S. to unionize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the measurements for inequality and poverty that requires focusing on the details while examining the overall picture, in which the U.S. can learn from Europe's research and experience. It notes that many of the conference papers focuses on alternative measures of income, evaluates its impact on inequality and poverty from the joint Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)/Universtiy of Maryland conference that was held in Paris, France. The papers highlight the impact of making changes that affects measurement while the details provides insight for the determination of the best measure to use for poverty and inequality.

The paper discusses the interactions of changes in income distribution and the accumulation dynamics in the post-Fordist accumulation regime in OECD countries, which is characterized by deregulated financial markets. The neoliberal mode of regulation came with a decisive shift in power relations at the expense of labor, which is clearly reflected in the fall of wage shares across OECD economies. The notion of a "finance-dominated" accumulation regime is proposed to highlight that financial developments crucially shape the pattern and the pace of accumulation. Financial globalization has relaxed balance of payment constraints and thereby allowed the build up of big international imbalances. The combination of real wage moderation and financial liberalization has led to different strategies (or at least outcomes) in different countries. While some countries (like the USA) exhibit a credit-fuelled consumption-driven growth model that comes with large current account deficits, others (like Germany and Japan) show an export-driven growth model with modest consumption growth and large current account surpluses. Overall the financedominated accumulation regime is characterized by a mediocre growth performance and by a high degree of fragility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a new comprehensive panel of annual state-level income inequality measures spanning the postwar period 1945–2004. For many states, the share of income held by the top decile experienced a prolonged period of stability after World War II, followed by a substantial increase in inequality during the 1980s and 1990s. This paper also presents an examination of the long-run relationship between income inequality and economic growth. Our findings indicate that the long-run relationship between inequality and growth is positive in nature and driven principally by the concentration of income in the upper end of the income distribution. ( JEL D31, O40) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The “income inequality hypothesis” holds that rising income inequality affects the distribution of a wide range of social and economic outcomes. Although it is often alleged that rising income inequality will increase the advantages of the well-off in the competition for college, some researchers have provided descriptive evidence at odds with the income inequality hypothesis. In this paper, we track long-term trends in family income inequalities in college enrollment and completion (“collegiate inequalities”) using all available nationally representative datasets for cohorts born between 1908 and 1995. We show that the trends in collegiate inequalities moved in lockstep with the trend in income inequality over the past century. There is one exception to this general finding: For cohorts at risk for serving in the Vietnam War, collegiate inequalities were high, while income inequality was low. During this period, inequality in college enrollment and completion was significantly higher for men than for women, suggesting a bona fide “Vietnam War” effect. Aside from this singular confounding event, a century of evidence establishes a strong association between income and collegiate inequality, providing support for the view that rising income inequality is fundamentally changing the distribution of life chances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the fiscal effects of a Swiss-type tax on household wealth, with a $120,000 exemption and marginal tax rates running from 0.05 to 0.3 percent on $2.4 million or more of wealth. It also considers a wealth tax proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren with a $50 million exemption, a 2 percent tax on wealth above that and a 1 percent surcharge on wealth above $1 billion. Based on the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances, the Swiss tax would yield $189.3 billion and the Warren tax $303.4 billion. Only 0.07 percent of households would pay the Warren tax, compared to 44.3 percent for the Swiss tax. The Swiss tax would have a very small effect on income inequality, lowering the post-tax Gini coefficient by 0.004 Gini points. The effect of the Swiss tax and Warren tax on wealth inequality is miniscule, lowering the Gini coefficient by at most 0.0005 Gini points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of income inequality on economic growth in the US. Design/methodology/approach - This paper applies the endogenous growth model including human capital and technological progress. The generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) technique is applied to estimate regression parameters. The number of patents granted is chosen to measure technological progress. Percentage of people 25 years old and over who have completed 4 years of college or more is selected to measure human capital. Findings - The findings show that a higher Gini index hurts economic growth Economic growth has a positive relationship with the growth in civilian employment investment spending, technological progress, and human capital. When three other indicators of income inequality are considered, similar conclusions can be reached. Research limitations/implications - A major implication is that a deterioration of inequality would be harmful to economic growth. Originality/value - Major contributions of the paper are to consider human capital in the model and different measures of inequality in empirical work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article comments on a paper by Dirk Krueger and Fahrizio Perri which aimed to investigate the welfare consequences of the stark increase in wage and earnings inequality in the U.S. from 1973 to 2003. The commenter compares some of their findings with facts from alternative data. He then discusses two alternatives to Krueger and Perri's approach for evaluating the welfare consequences of the rising inequality. It is well established that since the 1970s there has been a substantial increase in inequality in wages and earnings. The focus of the empirical literature has been to decompose this rise in inequality into transient and permanent components. The motivation for this focus is that permanent shocks presumably have large welfare consequences, while transient shocks are regarded as (self-)insurable. However, this link between earnings and welfare implicitly requires assumptions about market structure and excludes risk-sharing devices that do not show up in wages or labor income. Krueger and Perri pursue a different approach for quantifying the welfare costs of rising inequality by noting that welfare is not derived from income and wages, but rather from consumption and leisure. In particular, Krueger and Perri ask the following two questions: (1) How has inequality in consumption and leisure evolved? and (2) What are the welfare consequences of these changes?

This paper develops a model to analyse how skill premia differ over time and across countries, and uses this model to study the impact of international trade on wage inequality. Skill premia are determined by technology, the relative supply of skills, and trade. Technology is itself endogenous, and responds to profit incentives. An increase in the relative supply of skills, holding technology constant, reduces the skill premium. But an increase in the supply of skills over time also induces a change in technology, increasing the demand for skills. The most important result of the paper is that increased international trade induces skill-biased technical change. As a result, trade opening can cause a rise in inequality both in the U.S. and the less developed countries, and thanks to the induced skill-biased technical change, this can happen without a rise in the relative prices of skill-intensive goods in the U.S., which is the usual intervening mechanism in the standard trade models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks whether being located outside the United States lowers research productivity in a data set of foreign-born, U.S.- educated scientists. Instrumenting location with visa status that requires return to home countries, we find a large negative relationship between non-U.S. location and research output for countries with low income per capita but none for countries with high income per capita. This suggests that a scientist exogenously located in a country at the top of the income distribution can expect to be as productive in research as he or she would be in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]