The Evolution of Income Inequality in the United States, Its Consequences, and Some Policy Measures

Tanweer Akram and Khawaja Mamun

Economics Working Paper Archive from Levy Economics Institute

Abstract: This paper discusses the key concepts and main stylized facts concerning household real income and income inequality in the United States in recent decades. It explains the widely used summary measures of income distribution, which reveal that income inequality in the US has been steadily rising. It explores the economic implications and social consequences of the evolution of household real income and income inequality and considers ongoing debates about policy measures to mitigate the adverse effects of elevated income inequality, such as universal basic income and job guarantees.

Keywords: Household Real Income; Income Inequality; Macroeconomic and Social Effects of Inequality; Universal Basic Income; Job Guarantee (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 D31 D63 E02 E64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.levyinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/wp_1109.pdf
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found

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:lev:wrkpap:wp_1109

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Working Paper Archive from Levy Economics Institute
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lindsey Carter ().