scholarly journals Social Class and Income Inequality in the United States: Ownership, Authority, and Personal Income Distribution from 1980 to 2010

2016 ◽  
Vol 121 (5) ◽  
pp. 1375-1415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey T. Wodtke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personal Income

Evidence on Income Inequality in the United States, 1866–1965

1969 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee C. Soltow
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Wealth Distribution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Personal Income ◽  
Income Groups

It is commonly thought that income distribution among people became more concentrated after the Civil War and that this direction continued until the turn of the century. We can look methodically at the income tax distributions from the Civil War period and compare them directly with the distributions arising from the income tax after 1912. We also have some data from the abortive income tax of 1894. After examining the various blocks of evidence, the conclusion will be made that inequality among upper-income groups did not increase during this period. It is necessary to emphasize that the present investigation is one of income and not of wealth. It might have been possible for the nonhuman wealth distribution among people to remain constant or to increase in inequality while the personal income distribution was decreasing in inequality.

The Soviet Income Revolution

Slavic Review ◽  
1963 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 683-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray Yanowitch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Capitalist Economy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Russia

A number of studies of income distribution have suggested that income inequality in the United States showed some tendency to decline during the 1930's and the war years. Although the extent and timing of the decline may be in dispute among specialists in this area, and some recent studies suggest that no significant changes in income shares have occurred since 1944, the American Income Revolution has nonetheless been widely accepted and acclaimed. All the more reason, it would seem, that studies of changes in income inequality in Soviet Russia should prove of great interest. If income inequality has been reduced in the world's major capitalist economy, what has been happening to income distribution in the Soviet Union?

scholarly journals Income Inequality and Advanced Democracies

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicki L. Birchfield ◽  
Raisa Mulatinho Simões
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Macroeconomic Conditions ◽  
Classical Economics ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cross National

Over the past several decades, social scientists from a wide range of disciplines have produced a rich body of scholarship addressing the growing phenomenon of income inequality across and within advanced capitalist democracies. As globalization intensifies some scholars are beginning to put income disparities in developed democracies into wider perspective, examining inequality in advanced economies within the framework of global income distribution. As an object of inquiry, income inequality must be distinguished from the presumably more value-neutral term, income distribution, which has been studied since the origins of classical economics. How one derives a judgment about whether or not a given society’s income distribution is characterized by inequality requires an evaluative metric of either a longitudinal or a cross-sectional nature. Generally speaking and to side-step explicitly normative questions—the relative degree of inequality may be empirically assessed by temporal or longitudinal comparisons for single country studies (e.g., income distribution in the United States is more unequal now than in the 1950s and 1960s) or, alternatively, through cross-national comparisons (e.g., income inequality is higher in Great Britain than in Sweden). It is important to note that the lack of authoritative, comparable cross-national data until relatively recently impeded progress of this latter category of research. As a result, systematic investigations of income inequality or patterns of income distribution tended to be the exclusive domain of economists or sociologists and mostly focused on the United States. Within the past decade, however, political scientists—especially comparative political economists—have mined new databases and generated an impressive body of literature that moves research beyond a narrow focus on single-country studies to rigorous cross-national and time-series analyses and into new theoretical directions engaging the classic, paradigmatic questions of “who gets what, when, and how” that have long exercised the minds of students of politics and political economists. Given the intrinsic multidisciplinarity of the subject of income inequality, this article includes research by economists and sociologists as well as political scientists. Most research on income inequality addresses one of the following areas of inquiry: (1) the causal forces driving increasing inequality in developed economies; (2) the socioeconomic effects and political consequences of income inequality; (3) the relationships between income inequality and macroeconomic conditions, such as economic growth, unemployment, and the degree of trade and internationalization of the domestic economy. The recent work by French economist Thomas Piketty, whose 2013 book (2014, English translation) sold 2. 5 million copies, warrants special comment given its comprehensive scope and influence in putting income inequality at the forefront of global debates. Lastly, a new and growing body of scholarship explores the relationship among the environment, climate change, and income inequality.

Conditions of Employment and Income Distribution in Mexico as Incentives for Mexican Migration to the United States: Prospects to the End of the Century

1979 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Evans ◽  
Dilmus D. James
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
The United States ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Mexican Migration ◽  
Rapid Population Growth ◽  
Conditions Of Employment ◽  
Productive Employment

This paper examines the factors contributing to the flow of undocumented migrants from Mexico, demonstrating the problem to be both massive and enduring. The authors focus on the inadequate growth of productive employment, income inequality, and rapid population growth.

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