The Structure of Earnings and the Measurement of Income Inequality in the U.S.


Book Description

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.




Communities in Action


Book Description

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.




Income Structure in America Today


Book Description




Personal Income Distribution


Book Description

Het is mogelijk dat het orimogelijk is om iets nieuwer enjuister te zeggen, maar over al het geschrevene daalt het stof der tijden neer, en ik peins daarom dat het goed is als er om de 10 jaar een andere een kruis trekt over al die oude dingen, en de wereld-van-vandaag opnieuw uitspreekt 1 met andere woorden.-Louis Paul Boon (1972) 1.1 THE PROBLEM The distribution of labor incomes is a problem with two aspects, each of which has received ample attention in the literature. The first aspect relates to the shape of the frequency distribution of individuals according to their (labor) incomes. Analytical contributions include the so-called stochastic theories of income dis tribution, such as Gibrat's law of proportionate effect, Champernowne's and Rutherford's Markov-chain models, and Pigou's puzzle. The question is, If abil ities are normally distributed, why should the distribution of incomes deviate from this shape? This deviation is the basic fact that these theories explain: in come distributions, whatever the time and place of observation, are positively skewed. 2 CHAPTER 1 The second aspect of the distribution of labor incomes is the problem of wage differentials: why do wages differ, why do all workers not earn the same wage? This question has been a standard problem ever since Adam Smith dealt with it.




Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries


Book Description

This report provides evidence of a fairly generalised increase in income inequality over the past two decades across OECD countries, but the timing, intensity and causes of the increase differ from what is typically suggested in the media.