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American Economic Review Vol. 103 No. 3 2013

Measuring the Trends in Inequality of Individuals and Families: Income and Consumption

Jonathan D. Fisher1; David Johnson2; Timothy M. Smeeding3

1 US Census Bureau, New York Census Research Data Center, 135 East 22nd Street, New York, NY 10025. · 2 US Census Bureau, Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division, 4600 Silver Hill Road, Washington, DC 20233. · 3 University of Wisconsin, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706.

Abstract

We present evidence on the level of and trend in inequality from 1985-2010 in the United States, using disposable income and consumption for a sample of individuals from the Consumer Expenditure (CE) Survey. Differing from the findings in other recent research, we find that the trends in income and consumption inequality are broadly similar between 1985 and 2006, but diverge during the Great Recession with consumption inequality decreasing and income inequality increasing. Given the differences in the trends in inequality in the last four years, using both income and consumption provides useful information.

DOI
10.1257/aer.103.3.184
Volume
103
Issue
3
Pages
184-188
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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