American Living Standards: Evidence from Recreational Expenditures (original) (raw)

The progress and distribution of U.S. living standards, 1959–1995

The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, 1997

In spite of sustained economic growth and official statistics showing sizable average income gains over the past twenty years, most Americans believe real incomes have declined. This paper examines trends in the level and distribution of U.S. incomes and wages between 1959 and 1995 in order to account for this surprising pessimism. Overall income growth slowed after the mid-1970s. In addition, high-income families have received a growing percentage of income gains, and many middle-and low-income families saw their incomes climb as a result of increases in breadwinners' employment rates and hours of work rather than hourly wage gains.

Three Centuries of American Inequality

1976

Income inequality in theAnited States displays considerabl e variance"since the seventeenth century. There Is no eter-Pal constancy' to the degree t inequality 'in total income, in labor earnings, or in income from conventional nonhuman wealth eitIler before or after-the effects of government taxes and spending. When all-the necessary adjustments t3 the raw data are made, it appears /,income and wealth were more evenly distribute& just before the Korean War than in 1929. Income. inequality has shown little trend since Korea. The entire history of inequality 'also points to the fact that inequality.moveMents are' not the result of mere movements among demogrphic groups-, but follow trends in the basic occdpationaI pay gaps as well gas in the level and dispersion in profit rates and rents. This essay:surveys the detailed evidence that reveals these r_ broad' patterns. It s/pecificalay seeks to clarify American inequality/ history. The following outline of topics is followed: growth now-equalgty later; measuring inequality; postwar stability; the 'levelling era of 1929-1951; the Uneven plateau of 1860-1929 (inequalit evidenCe); the uneven-ilateau of 1860-1929 (pay ratios and factor hares)1 wealth inequality trends before the Civil War; the antebellum-surge in wage inequality; and the agenda for the study of inequalit and economic growth, based on this survey of American distribution experience. (Author /AM) *

Inequality in Earnings at the Close of the Twentieth Century

Annual Review of Sociology, 1999

▪ Median income in the United States has fallen and the distribution of income has grown markedly more unequal over the past three decades, reversing a general pattern of earnings growth and equalization dating back to 1929. Median trends were not the same for all groups—women's earnings generally increased—but the growth in earnings inequality has been experienced by all groups. Even white men employed full-time, year-round—traditionally the most privileged and secure group—could not escape wage stagnation and polarization. These patterns suggest research questions that go beyond conventional sociological interest in racial and gender wage gaps, refocusing attention on more general changes in labor market dynamics. The debates over the origins of the rise in US inequality cover a wide range of issues that can be roughly grouped into four categories: the changing demographics of the labor force, the impact of economic restructuring, the role of political context and institutio...

INEQUALITY OF WAGE RATES, EARNINGS AND FAMILY INCOME IN THE UNITED STATES, 1975-2002

Review of Income and Wealth, 2005

This paper analyzes distributional changes over the last quarter of the twentieth century. We focus on four distinct distributions: the distribution of hourly wage rates, the distribution of annual earnings of individuals, the distribution of annual earnings of families, and the distribution of total family income adjusted for family size. Both male wage rate inequality and family income inequality accelerated during the early 1980s, increased at a slower rate through the early 1990s and then stabilized at a high level through the early 2000s. The similarity in the timing of changes in these two distributions has been used as evidence that increased family income inequality primarily reflects increased inequality of wage rates. We show that other important factors were also at work.

Income Inequality in the United States

2005

This paper presents new homogeneous series on top shares of income and wages from 1913 to 1998 in the United States using individual tax returns data. Top income and wages shares display a U-shaped pattern over the century. Our series suggest that the large shocks that capital owners experienced during the Great Depression and World War II have had a permanent effect on top capital incomes. We argue that steep progressive income and estate taxation may have prevented large fortunes from fully recovering from these shocks. Top wage shares were at before World War II, dropped precipitously during the war, and did not start to recover before the late 1960s but are now higher than before World War II. As a result, the working rich have replaced the rentiers at the top of the income distribution. * We thank Anthony Atkinson, Lawrence Katz, and two anonymous referees for their very helpful and detailed comments. We have also bene ted from comments and discussions with

American Living Standards, 1888-1994: Evidence From Consumer Expenditures

2000

I have benefited from comments of workshop participants at the University of Chicago. I gratefully acknowledge the support of NIH grant AG12658 and of the Russell Sage Foundation through their Visiting Scholar Program. This paper superceeds the similarly titled NBER Working Paper No. 7148. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Trends in Inequality Using Consumption-Expenditures: The U.S. From 1960 to 1993

Review of Income and Wealth, 1997

While much of the evidence suggests that there was an increase in inequality in the U.S. during the 1980s, the reasons are less evident. Using the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey data, we find that the inequality of consumption-expenditures, as well as the inequality of other measures of resources, widened considerably during the 1980s. While previous studies suggest that increasing inequality is mainly due to increases in within group inequality, we show that by decomposing inequality by the interaction of family type and education almost three-fourths of the increase in inequality is accounted for by changes in inequality between groups and by shifts in the population.