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Income Inequality in the United States: Using Tax Data to Measure Long-Term Trends

By: Contributor(s): Material type: Continuing resourceContinuing resourcePublication details: Journal of Political Economy; 2024Description: 2179-2227ISSN:
  • 0022-3808
Subject(s): Online resources: Summary: Concerns about income inequality emphasize the importance of accurate income measures. Estimates of top income shares based only on individual tax returns are biased by tax-base changes, social changes, and missing income sources. This paper addresses these shortcomings and presents new estimates of the distribution of national income since 1960. Our analysis of pretax income shows that top income shares are lower and have increased less since 1980 than other studies using tax data. In addition, increasing government transfers and tax progressivity have resulted in rising real incomes for all income groups and little change in aftertax top income shares.
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Article Index Article Index Dr VKRV Rao Library Vol. 132, No. 7 Not for loan AI734

Concerns about income inequality emphasize the importance of accurate income measures. Estimates of top income shares based only on individual tax returns are biased by tax-base changes, social changes, and missing income sources. This paper addresses these shortcomings and presents new estimates of the distribution of national income since 1960. Our analysis of pretax income shows that top income shares are lower and have increased less since 1980 than other studies using tax data. In addition, increasing government transfers and tax progressivity have resulted in rising real incomes for all income groups and little change in aftertax top income shares.

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