"Public Policy and the Income Distribution tackles many of the most difficult and intriguing questions about how government intervention - or lack thereof - has affected the incomes of everyday Americans. The twentieth century was remarkable in the extent to which advances in public policy helped improve the economic well being of Americans. Synthesizing existing knowledge on the effectiveness of public policy and contributing valuable new research, Public Policy and the Income Distribution examines public policy's successes, and points out the areas in which progress remains to be made."--BOOK JACKET.

Over the past 75 years, household income in the United States has increased substantially. Still, by some measures, income inequality has increased as well. This has been the subject of contested public policy and political discourse. The question still stands: How can we better articulate the nuanced changes in American incomes? It is difficult to have conversations about income inequality without an agreed-upon set of terms, metrics, and concepts. United States Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality, edited by Diana Furchtgott-Roth, examines the trends in income growth in the United States and explores various measures of income, including market, post-tax, and post-transfer income. Within each chapter, distinguished experts explain how income and wealth--and the way we measure them--have changed in the United States, which demographic groups have benefited from these changes, and how mobility has changed over time and over generations. Specific chapters explain the roles of gender and race. The resulting book is relevant to modern international policy, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and addresses what can be done to increase economic mobility in the United States.

Using income surveys and various political-economic data, this book shows that income inequality is fundamental to the dynamics of US politics.

This book makes an important contribution to the literature of public policy, political philosophy and political economy and the author argues that wage policy is an important component in the maintenance of democratic society.