Inequality and the Safety Net Throughout the Income Distribution, 1929-1940

James Feigenbaum, Price Fishback and Keoka Grayson

No 27069, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We explored two measures of inequality that described the full income distribution in cities. One measure is an income gini based on family incomes in 1929 for 33 cities and in 1933 for up to 48 cities in 1933 were spread throughout the country. We also estimated gini coefficients that made use of contract rents for renters and implicit rents for home owners for up to 955 cities throughout the country. We were able to expand to all counties when looking at a top-end inequality measure, the number of taxpayers per family. All three measures varied substantially across the country. We show the correlations between the various measures and also estimate the relationship between the measures and various relief programs developed by governments at all levels during the period.

JEL-codes: D31 H53 H7 H75 N31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
Note: DAE
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Published as Inequality and the Safety Net in American Cities throughout the Income Distribution, 1929–1940 , James Feigenbaum, Price Fishback, Keoka Grayson. in Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth , Chetty, Friedman, Gornick, Johnson, and Kennickell. 2022

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