Trends in US Spatial Inequality: Concentrating Affluence and a Democratization of Poverty

Cecile Gaubert, Patrick Kline, Damián Vergara and Danny Yagan

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2021, vol. 111, 520-25

Abstract: We use Bureau of Economic Analysis, census, and Current Population Survey data to study trends in income inequality across US states and counties from 1960–2019. Both states and counties have diverged in terms of per capita pretax incomes since the late 1990s, with transfers serving to dampen this divergence. County incomes have been diverging since the late 1970s. These trends in mean income mask opposing patterns among top- and bottom-income quantiles. Top incomes have diverged markedly across states since the late 1970s. In contrast, bottom-income quantiles and poverty rates have converged across areas in recent decades.

JEL-codes: D31 D63 I32 N32 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

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Working Paper: Trends in U.S. Spatial Inequality: Concentrating Affluence and a Democratization of Poverty (2021)
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DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20211075

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