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

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Auten, Gerald; Splinter, David
• 署名单位: United States Department of the Treasury
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/728741
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 2179-2227
• 关键词: mobility

摘要

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.