The various issues involved in measuring income inequality in the U.S. are analyzed in this book. In describing the level of inequality inherent in a particular graduation it is important which income recipient and which data set is used and also the measure of income inequality used as the appropriate summary statistic.Recent trends in labor markets are examined and the book attempts to trace the impact of these trends on the distribution of income for various age, race and occupational cohorts, and across states. Some new methods for analyzing inequality in a multidimensional framework are also discussed. This book provides one of the most comprehensive treatments of income inequality available to date.

There have been dramatic changes in the distribution of earnings and income in the United States during recent years. This volume presents original papers, contributed by eminent economists, on the measurement and causes of growing income inequality in the U.S. and other major industrialized countries. The first part examines the definition of income, decomposition of earnings into capacity and capacity utilization rates, and alternative methodologies for estimating income and earnings dispersion. The second part investigates theoretically or empirically alternative causes of income inequality: international trade, macroeconomic conditions and policies, technological progress, productivity growth, institutions, demographic labor supply, and sectoral labor demand. In the final part of the volume policy implications and recommendations are discussed.The volume will be valuable for academic departments (economics, political science, sociology); economic policy institutes and Federal Reserve Bank research departments; economists in government.

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?

The authors conducted a systematic empirical study of cross-sectional inequality in the U.S., integrating data from various surveys. The authors follow the mapping suggested by the household budget constraint from individual wages to individual earnings, to household earnings, to disposable income, and, ultimately, to consumption and wealth. They document a continuous and sizable increase in wage inequality over the sample period. Changes in the distribution of hours worked sharpen the rise in earnings inequality before 1982, but mitigate its increase thereafter. Taxes and transfers compress the level of income inequality, especially at the bottom of the distribution, but have little effect on the overall trend. Charts and tables. This is a print-on-demand publication; it is not an original.

Originally published in 1984, this study explores multiple theoretical perspectives as well as critically analysing the most recent evidence at the time to try and find a full explanation for inequality in the United States. Arguments of neoclassical economists and Marxist and institutional structuralists are considered by Osberg as well as putting forward his own model. Osberg uses his findings to attempt a complete explanation of the issue and advises on policies which could be undertaken by the government to try and lessen the gap. This title will be of interest to students of Economics.

Eight papers, both theoretical and applied, on the concept of equality of opportunity which says that a society should guarantee its members equal access to advantage regardless of their circumstances, while holding them responsible for turning that access into actual advantage by the application of effort.