Income Distribution

A worsening economic crisis due to the shift in wealth over the past decade is the central concern of this carefully documented study. It profiles the current status of income inequality in this country and discerns disturbing trends for the future. A wealth of data are collected, evaluated, and simplified into a straightforward view of the variables of income distribution. Dovring asserts that these must be examined in order to reverse the economic decline that threatens our democratic system. The study clarifies the problems associated with income inequality and formulates a consistent system for measuring its effects.

Paul Ryscavage, a noted labor economist, seeks to analyze various aspects of a major contemporary economic problem: the growing inequality of income in society.

What is income inequality? How is it measured? Is the middle class really declining? How does it relate to poverty? How long has inequality been rising in the US? Have there been other periods in history when income differences were as large as they are today? What are the causes of growing income and wage inequality? The author addresses these and other conceptual issues in eight carefully reasoned and clearly presented chapters. Concluding with an analysis and comparison of trends in wage inequality in other developed countries, he asks the final speculative question: How much more growth in inequality can our society withstand?

This interdisciplinary work presents the results of a comprehensive study of the causes and consequences of the rise in family income inequality during the period between 1947 and 1985. By examining the impact of changing industrial and occupational employment, population age structure, household structure, female labor force participation, and government spending on income inequality, the book systematically estimates and compares the influences on the inequality upturn. Strong evidence is presented which argues that the predominant influence on increasing income inequality is the changing economy, which has resulted in increased income at the top of the distribution and reduced income at the bottom.

"a new twist on the eternal question of inequitable income distribution, though they focus on wealth (accumulated income) rather than income. The authors document the dramatic disparities in the distributions of income and wealth and describe the problems these cause. Their solution, the alternative distribution system," is quite simple: tax inheritance rather than estates. Individuals could inherit up to $1 million tax free. Each succeeding million would be taxed at progressively higher rates. This plan, they argue, would force an estate to be distributed among more people and would cuase beneficiaries to use inheritances more vigorously and creatively.' The authors do an excellent job of making obscure economic data understandable." Booklist

An interdisciplinary book by one of the most respected scholars in what is broadly development economics but encompasses the most recent insights from philosophical research and empirical work on resource allocation, nutrition science, and anthropology. It has been widely recognized as a seminal work presenting a wide-ranging description of the causes and remedies of poverty and undernourishment, and addressing the current debate over methods of estimating their incidence.

The authors refute prevailing theories that attribute post-1950 state per-capita income convergence to (1) neoclassical adjustment mechanisms, (2) institutional sclerosis, and (3) southern industrialization. In the South, Wheat and Crown contend that sharecropping's collapse stimulated income in many ways. In the West, transport cost developments inhibited income growth, while in the Plains, changes in agriculture and education counted most.

Income inequality has risen in the UK, but why? This study describes the trend in inequality since the 1960s and shows how it has been driven by a combination of social changes, economic upheavals, and government policies on taxes and benefits.

Many of the countries that have recently converted to a market-based economic system have also experienced an alarming increase in income inequality -- a widening gap between the haves and have nots. But to what extent is the increase in inequality also increasing the opportunities for economic advancement -- particularly for those at the bottom of the economic ladder? Does the creation of greater opportunities make a region's move to the market politically acceptable? And, if opportunities don't increase along with inequality, will it eventually cause a political backlash against a country's market policies? This book highlights the importance of finding the answers to those questions by examining the issues of social mobility and opportunity as an essential part of the income inequality puzzle. It provides a summary of the latest research on the economics and politics of social mobility in both developed and emerging market economies, including the conceptual issues involved and the challenges of accurately documenting trends. The book concludes with a discussion of the economics of opportunity and mobility in Latin America and Eastern Europe, and the politics and perceptions of mobility in the two regions.