A collection of twenty-three studies that explore the latest developments in the analysis of income and wealth distribution and mobility.
Economic research is increasingly focused on inequality in the distribution of personal resources and outcomes. One aspect of inequality is mobility: are individuals locked into their respective places in this distribution? To what extent do circumstances change, either over the lifecycle or across generations? Research not only measures inequality and mobility, but also analyzes the historical, economic, and social determinants of these outcomes and the effect of public policies. This volume explores the latest developments in the analysis of income and wealth distribution and mobility. The collection of twenty-three studies is divided into five sections. The first examines observed patterns of income inequality and shifts in the distribution of earnings and in other factors that contribute to it. The next examines wealth inequality, including a substantial discussion of the difficulties of defining and measuring wealth. The third section presents new evidence on the intergenerational transmission of inequality and the mechanisms that underlie it. The next section considers the impact of various policy interventions that are directed at reducing inequality. The final section addresses the challenges of combining household-level data, potentially from multiple sources such as surveys and administrative records, and aggregate data to study inequality, and explores ways to make survey data more comparable with national income accounts data.
Prefatory Note Acknowledgments Introduction Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Janet C. Gornick, Barry Johnson, and Arthur Kennickell I. Income Inequality 1. In Search of the Roots of American Inequality Exceptionalism: An Analysis Based on Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Data Janet C. Gornick, Branko Milanovic, and Nathaniel Johnson 2. Rising Between- Firm Inequality and Declining Labor Market Fluidity: Evidence of a Changing Job Ladder John Haltiwanger and James R. Spletzer 3. United States Earnings Dynamics: Inequality, Mobility, and Volatility Kevin L. McKinney, John M. Abowd, and John Sabelhaus 4. Evidence from Unique Swiss Tax Data on the Composition and Joint Distribution of Income and Wealth Isabel Z. Martinez II. Wealth Inequality 5. The Wealth of Generations, with Special Attention to the Millennials William G. Gale, Hilary Gelfond, Jason J. Fichtner, and Benjamin H. Harris 6. Wealth Transfers and Net Wealth at Death: Evidence from the Italian Inheritance Tax Records, 1995– 2016 Paolo Acciari and Salvatore Morelli 7. On the Distribution of Estates and the Distribution of Wealth: Evidence from the Dead Yonatan Berman and Salvatore Morelli 8. Structuring the Analysis of Wealth Inequality Using the Functions of Wealth: A Class- Based Approach Pirmin Fessler and Martin Schurz 9. Social Security Wealth, Inequality, and Life- Cycle Saving John Sabelhaus and Alice Henriques Volz III. Income and Wealth Mobility 10. Parental Education and the Rising Transmission of Income between Generations Marie Connolly, Catherine Haeck, and Jean- William Laliberte 11. Inequality of Opportunity for Income in Denmark and the United States: A Comparison Based on Administrative Data Pablo A. Mitnik, Anne- Line Helso, and Victoria L. Bryant 12. Presence and Persistence of Poverty in US Tax Data Jeff Larrimore, Jacob Mortenson, and David Splinter 13. Intergenerational Home Ownership in France over the Twentieth Century Bertrand Garbinti and Frederique Savignac 14. Inequality and Mobility over the Past Half- Century Using Income, Consumption, and Wealth Jonathan D. Fisher and David S. Johnson IV. Mitigating Inequality 15. The Accuracy of Tax Imputations: Estimating Tax Liabilities and Credits Using Linked Survey and Administrative Data Bruce D. Meyer, Derek Wu, Grace Finley, Patrick Langetieg, Carla Medalia, Mark Payne, and Alan Plumley 16. Geographic Inequality in Social Provision: Variation across the US States Sarah K. Bruch, Janet C. Gornick, and Joseph van der Naald 17. Inequality and the Safety Net in American Cities throughout the Income Distribution, 1929– 1940 James Feigenbaum, Price Fishback, and Keoka Grayson 18. The EITC and Linking Data for Examining Multigenerational Effects Randall Akee, Maggie R. Jones, and Emilia Simeonova V. Distributional National Accounts 19. Distributing Personal Income: Trends over Time Dennis Fixler, Marina Gindelsky, and David S. Johnson 20. Developing Indicators of Inequality and Poverty Consistent with National Accounts Richard Tonkin, Sean White, Sofiya Stoyanova, Aly Youssef, Sunny Valentineo Sidhu, and Chris Payne 21. Distributional National Accounts: A Macro- Micro Approach to Inequality in Germany Stefan Bach, Charlotte Bartels, and Theresa Neef 22. The Distributional Financial Accounts of the United States Michael Batty, Jesse Bricker, Joseph Briggs, Sarah Friedman, Danielle Nemschoff, Eric Nielsen, Kamila Sommer, and Alice Henriques Volz 23. Using Tax Data to Better Capture Top Incomes in Official UK Income Inequality Statistics Dominic Webber, Richard Tonkin, and Martin Shine Contributors Author Index Subject Index
Raj Chetty is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University, director of Opportunity Insights, and a research associate and director of the Public Economics Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. John N. Friedman is professor of economics and international and political affairs at Brown University and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Janet C. Gornick is professor of political science and sociology, director of the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, and holds the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Distinguished Chair in Socio-Economic Inequality at the City University of New York. Barry Johnson is deputy chief data and analytics officer and director of the Statistics of Income Division at the Internal Revenue Service. Arthur Kennickell is a Stone Center Affiliated Scholar at the City University of New York and a member of the board of directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
