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Income Inequality In The United States, 1913-1998

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Author Info
Thomas Piketty
Emmanuel Saez

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Abstract

This paper presents new homogeneous series on top shares of income and wages from 1913 to 1998 in the United States using individual tax returns data. Top income and wages shares display a U-shaped pattern over the century. Our series suggest that the large shocks that capital owners experienced during the Great Depression and World War II have had a permanent effect on top capital incomes. We argue that steep progressive income and estate taxation may have prevented large fortunes from fully recovering from these shocks. Top wage shares were flat before World War II, dropped precipitously during the war, and did not start to recover before the late 1960s but are now higher than before World War II. As a result, the working rich have replaced the rentiers at the top of the income distribution. © 2001 the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Article provided by MIT Press in its journal The Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Volume (Year): 118 (2003)
Issue (Month): 1 (February)
Pages: 1-39
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Handle: RePEc:tpr:qjecon:v:118:y:2003:i:1:p:1-39

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  6. Richard V. Burkhauser & Shuaizhang Feng & Stephen P. Jenkins & Jeff Larrimore, 2008. "Estimating Trends in US Income Inequality Using the Current Population Survey: The Importance of Controlling for Censoring," NBER Working Papers 14247, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Davies, James B. & Sandstrom, Susanna & Shorrocks, Anthony & Wolff, Edward N., 2008. "The World Distribution of Household Wealth," Working Papers DP2008/03, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
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  10. Marco Cagetti & Mariacristina De Nardi, 2006. "Wealth Inequality: Data and Models," NBER Working Papers 12550, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Anna Fräßdorf & Markus M. Grabka & Johannes Schwarze, 2008. "The Impact of Household Capital Income on Income Inequality : A Factor Decomposition Analysis for Great Britain, Germany and the USA," SOEPpapers 104, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). [Downloadable!]
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  12. Steven N. Kaplan & Joshua Rauh, 2007. "Wall Street and Main Street: What Contributes to the Rise in the Highest Incomes?," NBER Working Papers 13270, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Glaeser, Edward L., 2005. "Inequality," Working Paper Series rwp05-056, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. [Downloadable!]
  14. Reto Foellmi & Josef Zweimueller, 2003. "Inequality and Economic Growth: European Versus U.S. Experiences," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo GmbH. [Downloadable!]
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  15. Joshua L. Rosenbloom & William A. Sundstrom, 2009. "Labor-Market Regimes in U.S. Economic History," NBER Working Papers 15055, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2005. "Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Re-Assessing the Revisionists," NBER Working Papers 11627, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  19. Chris Papageorgiou & Subir Lall & Florence Jaumotte, 2008. "Rising Income Inequality: Technology, or Trade and Financial Globalization?," IMF Working Papers 08/185, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
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