Affiliation:
1. George Mason University , USA
2. American Institute for Economic Research , USA
3. Walsh College , USA
4. Wayne State University , USA
Abstract
Abstract
Piketty and Saez (2003) found a pronounced U-curve pattern of American income inequality since 1917, displaying a precipitous decline during World War II to a level that would hold until 1980. We offer revisions to their income inequality estimates prior to 1960 with three important findings. First, Piketty and Saez overstate inequality levels in this period. Second, the decline during World War II was smaller than depicted. Third, the Great Depression, rather than World War II, played the more significant role. These findings indicate a need to re-evaluate commonly held assumptions about the evolution of inequality during the period of the ‘great levelling’, as well as the nature of its posited relationship to tax policy.
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Subject
Economics and Econometrics
Reference41 articles.
1. ‘Levels and trends in US income and its distribution: A crosswalk from market income towards a comprehensive haig-simons income approach’;Armour;Southern Economic Journal,2014
2. ‘Top incomes in the long run of history’;Atkinson;Journal of Economic Literature,2011
3. ‘Income inequality in the United States: Using tax data to measure long-term trends’;Auten,2017
4. ‘Reactions of high-income taxpayers to major tax legislation’;Auten;National Tax Journal,2016
5. ‘Labor earnings inequality in manufacturing during the great depression’;Benguria,2020
Cited by
4 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献，注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献，订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献