Income and Wealth Inequality

  • Nicholas Bloom
  • Raj Chetty
  • Emmanuel Saez

Leaders: Nicholas Bloom, Raj Chetty, Emmanuel Saez

The CPI is home to some of the country’s most influential analyses of the income and wealth distribution. The purpose of the Income and Wealth RG is to monitor the ongoing takeoff in income inequality, to better understand its sources, and to analyze its implications for labor market performance, educational attainment, mobility, and more. The following is a sampling of the CPI’s research projects within this area.

Trends in income and wealth inequality: What are the key trends in U.S. income and wealth inequality? The U.S. increasingly looks to Emmanuel Saez and his research team for the latest data on U.S. economic inequality.

Distributional National Accounts: In an ambitious infrastructural project, Emmanuel Saez and his team are building a “Distributional National Accounts” based on tax returns, a data set that will eliminate the current gap between (a) national accounts data based on economic aggregates and (b) inequality analysis that uses micro-level tax data to examine the distribution of income but is not consistent with national aggregates. This new data set will in turn make it possible to evaluate the extent to which economic growth, which has long been represented as a preferred poverty-reduction approach, is indeed delivering on that objective.

The rise of between-firm inequality: How much of the rise in earnings inequality can be attributed to increasing between-firm dispersion in the average wages they pay? This question can be addressed by constructing a matched employer-employee data set for the United States using administrative records.

Rent and inequality: It is increasingly fashionable to argue that “rent” accounts for much of the takeoff in income inequality. The Current Population Survey can be used to assess whether this claim is on the mark. 

Income And Wealth - CPI Research

Title Author Media
Making Ends Meet Kathryn Edin, Laura Lein

Making Ends Meet

Author: Kathryn Edin, Laura Lein
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Date: 04/1997
Getting a Job Mark Granovetter

Getting a Job

Author: Mark Granovetter
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 03/1995
Elites and Power Giddens Anthony

Elites and Power

Author: Giddens Anthony
Publisher:
Date:
The Evolution of Modern Stratification Systems John W. Meyer

The Evolution of Modern Stratification Systems

Author: John W. Meyer
Publisher: Westview Press
Date:
Social Democracy & Welfare Capitalism: A Century of Income Security Politics Alexander M. Hicks

Social Democracy & Welfare Capitalism: A Century of Income Security Politics

Author: Alexander M. Hicks
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Date:

income and wealth - CPI Affiliates

John Roemer's picture John Roemer Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Professor of Political Sciences and Economics; Fellow, Econometric Society
Yale University
Rebecca L. Sandefur's picture Rebecca L. Sandefur Associate Professor, Department of Sociology; Associate Professor, College of Law (by courtesy); Faculty Affiliate, Women and Gender in Global Perspective and Program in Law, Behavior and Social Sciences
University of Illinois
Rick Fantasia's picture Rick Fantasia Barbara Richmond 1940 Professor in the Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology; Director, Kahn Liberal Arts Institute
Smith College
John Van Reenen's picture John Van Reenen Professor of Applied Economics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Robert Erikson's picture Robert Erikson Professor, Institute for Social Research
Stockholm University

Pages

Income And Wealth - Other Research

Title Author Media
Understanding the Gender Gap Claudia Goldin

Understanding the Gender Gap

Author: Claudia Goldin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date:
Losers and Winners: The Financial Consequences of Separation and Divorce for Men Patricia A. McManus and Thomas A. DiPrete

Losers and Winners: The Financial Consequences of Separation and Divorce for Men

Author: Patricia A. McManus and Thomas A. DiPrete
Publisher: American Sociological Review
Date:
Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste Pierre Bourdieu

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

Author: Pierre Bourdieu
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Date:
Welfare Regimes, Family-Supportive Policies, and Women’s Employment along the Life-Course Stier, Haya Stier, Noah Lewin-Epstein and Michael...

Welfare Regimes, Family-Supportive Policies, and Women’s Employment along the Life-Course

Author: Stier, Haya Stier, Noah Lewin-Epstein and Michael...
Publisher: American Journal of Sociology
Date:
International Differences in Male Wage Inequality: Institutions versus Market Forces Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn

International Differences in Male Wage Inequality: Institutions versus Market Forces

Author: Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn
Publisher: Journal of Political Economy
Date:

Income And Wealth - Multimedia

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