Long-run inequality persistence in the U.S., 1870–2019

Carlos Gayán-Navarro () and Marcos Sanso-Navarro
Additional contact information
Carlos Gayán-Navarro: Universidad de Zaragoza

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2024, vol. 172, issue 1, No 12, 281 pages

Abstract: Abstract This paper studies the long-run persistence of inequality in the U.S. With this aim, both income and wealth inequality measures covering the period from 1870 to 2019 have been analyzed. The persistent character of inequality has been assessed using unit root and structural break test statistics for time series. Furthermore, the determinants of inequality persistence have been explored by implementing Bayesian model averaging techniques in a generalized linear model framework. Our results suggest that the wealth-to-income ratio displays a non-stationary behavior throughout the whole sample period. On the contrary, the Gini index of disposable income and the top 10% income share alternate between I(0) and I(1) regimes. We also find that, while a higher level of globalization increases the persistence of income inequality, it is inversely related to the levels of educational attainment and trade union membership.

Keywords: Inequality; Unit roots; Structural breaks; Bayesian model averaging (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C11 C12 C22 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-024-03309-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:soinre:v:172:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-024-03309-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-024-03309-8

Access Statistics for this article

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement is currently edited by Filomena Maggino

More articles in Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().