Inequality | Econofact

How Does Wealth Beget Wealth? Evidence from Sweden

By Sandra Black, Paul J. Devereux and Kaveh Majlesi·August 4, 2020
Columbia University, University College, Dublin and Lund University

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The Issue:

Wealthy parents tend to raise children who grow up to be wealthy, just as children whose parents have few assets are likely to possess little wealth in adulthood. However, little is known about the extent to which this relationship is determined genetically, by environmental

Growing Racial Wealth Disparities Among Families with Children

By Christine Percheski and Christina Gibson-Davis·July 27, 2020
Northwestern University and Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University

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The Issue:

Public attention has focused mostly on racial and ethnic disparities in income, but racial and ethnic disparities in wealth – assets like home equity, savings, and retirement accounts, minus debts –are even larger. Gaps in wealth are particularly important for

The Unequal Impact of COVID-19 on Children’s Economic Vulnerability

By Anna Bokun, Jessie Himmelstern, Wonjeong Jeong, Ann Meier, Kelly Musick and Rob Warren·July 14, 2020
University of Minnesota and Cornell University

The Issue:

There are large disparities in COVID-related unemployment, with the largest proportional losses among Latinx and less-educated workers. The effects have been particularly felt among children. In our original research based on very recent data, we find that one-in-five children in the United States

Are Taxes (And Also Spending) Progressive?

By William G. Gale and Zachary Obstfeld·November 11, 2019
The Brookings Institution and EconoFact

The Issue:

The recent claim that in 2018, the 400 wealthiest American families paid, on average, a smaller percentage of their income in taxes (23 percent) than the percentage paid by the bottom half of all U.S. households (24 percent) has generated enormous attention and controversy. This assertion is featured

Taxing the Rich

By Kimberly Clausing·July 9, 2019
Reed College

The Issue:

Many Americans have not felt the benefits of strong GDP growth in recent decades, as thirty-five years of rising income inequality have concentrated the income growth at the top of the distribution. While the federal income tax system is progressive, it has failed to counter these trends, and some of

Widening Socioeconomic Differences in Children’s Family Structure

By Melissa Kearney·June 17, 2019
University of Maryland

The Issue:

There has been a substantial decline in the share of children in the U.S. living with married parents over recent decades. Importantly, this decline has not been made up for with a rise in the share of children living with unmarried parents; rather, many more children today live with a lone parent than

Breaking Barriers to College for High-Achieving, Low-Income Students

By Susan Dynarski·March 17, 2019
University of Michigan

The Issue:

College graduates have more career opportunities and earn substantially more over their lifetimes than those who attain only a high school degree. There is even more of an earnings boost from attending a highly selective college. Yet low-income students with strong academic credentials are less likely

Voting and Income

By Randall Akee·February 7, 2019
University of California, Los Angeles

The Issue:

Voter turnout in the United States is vastly unequal: richer people are more likely to vote than poorer people. If the poor are less likely to vote then they have a lower probability of having their interests and preferences reflected in public policy. While the association between higher family incomes

Policy Implications from Rising Economic Inequality

By Kimberly Clausing and Hilary Hoynes·November 13, 2018
Reed College and University of California, Berkeley

The Issue:

A marked increase in income inequality has been a defining characteristic of the U.S. economy of the past several decades. Progressive tax policy and a social safety net that invests in those at the bottom of the income distribution play a role in mitigating widening inequality in the United States. ...
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