scholarly journals The Rise of Income and Wealth Inequality in America: Evidence from Distributional Macroeconomic Accounts

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Saez ◽  
Gabriel Zucman
Keyword(s):  
Additional Data ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Tax Progressivity ◽  
Wealth Concentration ◽  
Additional Data Collection ◽  
Redistributive Effects ◽  
Aggregate Amount

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.

scholarly journals Tax Progressivity of Personal Wages and Income Inequality

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Papanikolaou
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Census Bureau ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Tax Progressivity ◽  
Income Data ◽  
Kakwani Index ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Wage Income

The paper examines tax progressivity and income inequality using Census Bureau Current Population Survey (CPS) personal income data. The Kakwani index is used to derive tax progressivity for All, Male, Female, White and African American personal wage income of CPS respondents, respectively. The tax progressivity results show a tax system that is partly progressive and mostly regressive. Due to its regressive nature, the tax system did not display tax progressivity for the entire period under analysis for personal wage income respondents as well as when broken-down by race and gender in the United States for years 1996 to 2011.

scholarly journals Victory Tax: A Holistic Income Tax System

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (11) ◽  
pp. 1492
Author(s):  
Donald J. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
The United States ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Single Tax ◽  
Government Transfer ◽  
Log Normal

How can an income tax system be designed to exploit human nature and a free market to create a poverty free society, while balancing budgets without disproportional tax burdens? Such a tax system, with universal character, is deduced from the following guiding principles: (1) a single tax rate applies to all income types and levels; (2) the tax rate adjusts to satisfy budget projections; (3) government transfer only supplements the income of households with self-generated income below the poverty line; (4) deductions for basic living expenses, itemized investments and capital losses are allowed; (5) deductions cannot be applied to government transfer. A general framework emerges with three parameters that determine a minimum allowed tax deduction, a maximum allowed itemized deduction, and a maximum deduction defined by income percentage. An income distribution that mimics the United States, and a series of log-normal distributions are considered to quantitatively compare detailed characteristics of this tax system to progressive and flat tax systems. To minimize government dependency while maximizing after-tax income, the effective tax rate (ETR) as a function of income percentile takes the shape of the letter, V, inspiring the name victory tax, where the middle class has the lowest ETR.

scholarly journals Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data *

2016 ◽  
Vol 131 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Saez ◽  
Gabriel Zucman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Balance Sheets ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Wealth Concentration ◽  
Top Incomes ◽  
Tax Returns

Abstract This paper combines income tax returns with macroeconomic household balance sheets to estimate the distribution of wealth in the United States since 1913. We estimate wealth by capitalizing the incomes reported by individual taxpayers, accounting for assets that do not generate taxable income. We successfully test our capitalization method in three micro datasets where we can observe both income and wealth: the Survey of Consumer Finance, linked estate and income tax returns, and foundations’ tax records. We find that wealth concentration was high in the beginning of the twentieth century, fell from 1929 to 1978, and has continuously increased since then. The top 0.1% wealth share has risen from 7% in 1978 to 22% in 2012, a level almost as high as in 1929. Top wealth-holders are younger today than in the 1960s and earn a higher fraction of the economy’s labor income. The bottom 90% wealth share first increased up to the mid-1980s and then steadily declined. The increase in wealth inequality in recent decades is due to the upsurge of top incomes combined with an increase in saving rate inequality. We explain how our findings can be reconciled with Survey of Consumer Finances and estate tax data.

The Redistributive Effect of Direct Taxes: A Comparison of Six LIS Countries

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Bishop ◽  
K. Victor Chow ◽  
John P. Formby
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Statistical Inference ◽  
The United States ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Lorenz Curves ◽  
Tax Progressivity ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Redistributive Effects ◽  
Redistributive Effect

The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) is used to investigate the redistributive effects of direct taxes in six countries, Australia, Canada, Sweden, West Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. Two periods are considered and comparisons are made among countries at different points in time and within countries across time. Lorenz curves are adapted and used to make ordinal comparisons of two very general measures of tax progressivity- so called “residual” and “liability” progression. Newly developed statistical inference procedures allow us to take the sampling variability inherent in the LIS data into account.

Wealth Defense and the Complicity of Liberal Democracy

Wealth ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Winters
Keyword(s):  
Government Policy ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Historical View ◽  
Wealth Concentration ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Modern Era

Sustaining extreme material inequality is neither easy nor automatic. It requires constant and active strategies of wealth defense by the rich, including using their money to hire protective services (which in the twentieth century took the form of a specialized wealth defense industry). An important transformation over the centuries was the movement of violence out of the hands of the rich in exchange for their support for impersonal institutions of coercion whose first priority has been the defense of property rights that make great fortunes viable politically. This chapter focuses on the changing politics and power that undergird wealth stratification. The analysis takes a deep historical view of the social tensions inherent in wealth concentration, starting with the origins of wealth inequality, and continuing with a discussion of the strategies and politics of wealth defense as personal fortunes grew in scale and as threats and predations multiplied. The second half of the chapter focuses on the modern era through an examination of the United States from the 1780s to the present. The US case demonstrates that for democracy and extreme wealth stratification to be compatible, democracy must first be structurally impaired and ideologically reframed to hinder egalitarian impulses from becoming government policy.

scholarly journals How Progressive is the U.S. Federal Tax System? A Historical and International Perspective

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Piketty ◽  
Emmanuel Saez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Tax Progressivity ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Income Groups ◽  
The U.S

This paper provides estimates of federal tax rates by income groups in the United States since 1960, with special emphasis on very top income groups. We include individual and corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, and estate and gift taxes. The progressivity of the U.S. federal tax system at the top of the income distribution has declined dramatically since the 1960s. This dramatic drop in progressivity is due primarily to a drop in corporate taxes and in estate and gift taxes combined with a sharp change in the composition of top incomes away from capital income and toward labor income. The sharp drop in statutory top marginal individual income tax rates has contributed only moderately to the decline in tax progressivity. International comparisons confirm that is it critical to take into account other taxes than the individual income tax to properly assess the extent of overall tax progressivity, both for time trends and for cross-country comparisons. The pattern for the United Kingdom is similar to the U.S. pattern. France had less progressive taxes than the United States or the United Kingdom in 1970 but has experienced an increase in tax progressivity and has now a more progressive tax system than the United States or the United Kingdom.

Global Wealth Inequality

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Zucman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Tax Havens ◽  
Wealth Concentration ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich

This article reviews the recent literature on the dynamics of global wealth inequality. I first reconcile available estimates of wealth inequality in the United States. Both surveys and tax data show that wealth inequality has increased dramatically since the 1980s, with a top 1% wealth share of approximately 40% in 2016 versus 25–30% in the 1980s. Second, I discuss the fast-growing literature on wealth inequality across the world. Evidence points toward a rise in global wealth concentration: For China, Europe, and the United States combined, the top 1% wealth share has increased from 28% in 1980 to 33% today, while the bottom 75% share hovered around 10%. Recent studies, however, may underestimate the level and rise of inequality, as financial globalization makes it increasingly hard to measure wealth at the top. I discuss how new data sources (leaks from financial institutions, tax amnesties, and macroeconomic statistics of tax havens) can be leveraged to better capture the wealth of the rich.

Moving on the Chain: Push-Pull Factors Affecting the Migration of Laotian Workers to Udon Thani, Thailand

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-105
Author(s):  
Thanapauge Chamaratana ◽  
Thawatchai Sangseema
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Additional Data ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Pull Factors ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Content Analysis Method ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Additional Data Collection ◽  
Study Unit ◽  
Participatory Observation

Abstract The tendency of migration of Lao workers to Thailand is likely to increase especially migration pattern is social network. The objective of this research was to study factors effecting the migration through social network of Lao workers in Udon Thani. Qualitative research method was applied in the study. Unit of analysis was group level. In-depth interview guideline was applied to collect data from 15 Laotian workers. The research site was Udon Thani, Thailand. Participatory observation and non-participatory observation were use for additional data collection. The ATLAS.ti programme was applied to categorize data, and data analysis was based on the content analysis method. The research results showed that the crucial push factors which contributed migration among Laotian workers included Udon Thani Unemployment in residency, and low revenue in residency and important pull factors include higher compensation, worker demand of establishments in Udon Thani province, Laotian employers' values in Udon Thani, and social network of Laotian workers in destination.

Hidden superlattice in Tl2(SC6H4S) and Tl2(SeC6H4Se) solved from powder X-ray diffraction

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 409-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin H. Stone ◽  
Dayna L. Turner ◽  
Mayank Pratap Singh ◽  
Thomas P. Vaid ◽  
Peter W. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Additional Data ◽  
Sulfur Compound ◽  
Closed Shell ◽  
Initial Structure ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
Rietveld Refinements ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Additional Data Collection ◽  
Superlattice Structures ◽  
Counting Statistics

The crystal structures of the isostructural title compounds poly[(μ-benzene-1,4-dithiolato)dithallium], Tl2(SC6H4S), and poly[(μ-benzene-1,4-diselenolato)dithallium], Tl2(SeC6H4Se), were solved by simulated annealing from high-resolution synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction. Rietveld refinements of an initial structure with one formula unit per triclinic cell gave satisfactory agreement with the data, but led to a structure with impossibly close non-bonded contacts. A disordered model was proposed to alleviate this problem, but an alternative supercell structure leads to slightly improved agreement with the data. The isostructural superlattice structures were confirmed for both compounds through additional data collection, with substantially better counting statistics, which revealed the presence of very weak superlattice peaks not previously seen. Overall, each structure contains Tl—S or Tl—Se two-dimensional networks, connected by phenylene bridges. The sulfur (or selenium) coordination sphere around each thallium is a highly distorted square pyramid or a `see-saw' shape, depending upon how many Tl—S or Tl—Se interactions are considered to be bonds. In addition, the two compounds contain pairs of TlI ions that interact through a closed-shell `thallophilic' interaction: in the sulfur compound there are two inequivalent pairs of Tl atoms with Tl—Tl distances of 3.49 and 3.58 Å, while in the selenium compound those Tl—Tl interactions are at 3.54 and 3.63 Å.

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