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Regulation and income inequality in the United States

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  • Chambers, Dustin
  • O'Reilly, Colin

Abstract

Income inequality in the United States has risen over the past several decades. Over the same period, federal regulatory restrictions have increased. An emerging literature shows that regulations can have regressive effects on the distribution of income, exacerbating inequality. The Federal Regulation and State Enterprise (FRASE) index quantifies the regulatory restrictions that apply to each US state by industrial composition. We construct a panel of 50 US states from 1997 to 2015 to test whether states exposed to more federal regulatory restrictions have higher levels of income inequality. The results indicate that a 10 percent increase in federal regulation is associated with an approximate 0.5 percent increase in income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient. When states are rank-ordered by average Gini coefficient, a 0.5 percent increase in income inequality will typically result in a two-position decline in state ranking.

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  • Chambers, Dustin & O'Reilly, Colin, 2022. "Regulation and income inequality in the United States," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:72:y:2022:i:c:s0176268021000872
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2021.102101
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    Cited by:

    1. John A. Dove, 2023. "One size fits all? The differential impact of federal regulation on early-stage entrepreneurial activity across US states," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 57-73, April.
    2. Vitor Melo & Stephen Miller, 2022. "Estimating the Effect of Rent-Seeking on income distribution: an analysis of U.S. States and Counties," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 192(1), pages 99-114, July.
    3. Dustin Chambers & Colin O’Reilly, 2022. "The economic theory of regulation and inequality," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 193(1), pages 63-78, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Regulation; Income inequality; FRASE; Regressive effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

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