The Rise of Income and Wealth Inequality in America
Evidence from Distributional Macroeconomic Accounts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4029669 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emmanuel Saez (0000-0002-3548-6325, Emmanuel Saez, Professor of Economics, at the University of California, Berkeley, California.), Gabriel Zucman (Gabriel Zucman, Professor of Economics, at the University of California, Berkeley, California.) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 3-26 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Economic Perspectives (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0895-3309 • E-ISSN: 1944-7965 |
| Publisher | American Economic Association (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1257/jep.34.4.3 |
| OpenAlex | W3205658093 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 67 |
| References cited | 4 |
This paper studies inequality in America through the lens of distributional macroeconomic accounts-comprehensive distributions of the aggregate amount of income and wealth recorded in the official macroeconomic accounts of the United States. We use these distributional macroeconomic accounts to quantify the rise of income and wealth concentration since the late 1970s, the change in tax progressivity, and the direct redistributive effects of government intervention in the economy. Between 1978 and 2018, the share of pre-tax income earned by the top 1% rose from 10% to about 19%, and the share of wealth owned by the top 0.1% rose from 7% to about 18%. In 2018, the tax system was regressive at the top-end; the top 400 wealthiest Americans paid a lower average tax rate than the macroeconomic tax rate of 29%. We confront our methods and findings with those of other studies, pinpoint the areas where more research is needed, and describe how additional data collection could improve inequality measurement
Demographic economics · Economic inequality · Economic interventionism · Economics · Income distribution · Inequality · Labour economics · Macroeconomics · Monetary economics · Economic Theory and Policy · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Income, Poverty, and Inequality
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| Unique citing works | 67 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 13,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 66 |