Income Inequality
Income Inequality May Worsen the Spread of Infectious Disease
Income inequality may exacerbate the spread of infectious diseases. In a new paper, Jay Bhattacharya, Joydeep Bhattacharya, and Min Kyong Kim examine the relationship between income inequality and the incidence and prevalence of tuberculosis across countries.
To Understand Earnings Inequality, We Need To Study Hours Inequality
A growing literature on income inequality and labor earnings has overlooked the contribution of disparities in hours worked. In new research with Lara Vivian,...
Plagues Upon the Earth: How Wealth Intersects With Mortality
Kyle Harper’s new book, Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History, shows that the story of disease is entangled with...
How Insufficient Enforcement Led to Prevalent Tax Evasion and Contributed to American Inequality
The prevalence of tax evasion among the top 1 percent of the income distribution is much worse than previously thought, a study by IRS...
Most Americans Consider Themselves Middle-Class. But Are They?
There are different ways of determining who should be considered middle-class. But there is one thing they have in common: all reveal that the...
Barriers to Entry as Another Source of Top Income Inequality
A new book, The Power of Creative Destruction, explores how lobbying contributes to the increase in the top 1 percent’s share of income. An...
What the US Can Learn From Denmark About Inequality and Social Mobility
Denmark has many generous social policies that American progressives seek to emulate. Yet Denmark also has substantial inequality of child outcomes across social and...
The Effects of Student Debt Forgiveness
While student loan forgiveness is undoubtedly expensive, research suggests that individuals whose debt is forgiven get better jobs, experience higher mobility, and are ultimately...
Covid-19 Aggravates Existing Income, Gender, and Race Inequalities, and Further Increases Political Divisions
Seventy percent of Americans know someone who tested positive; one in five know someone who died from coronavirus, survey shows.
For most of 2020,
we followed...
Income-Driven Repayment Provides a Way to Offer Student Loan Forgiveness to Those Who Need It the Most
Direct loan cancellation is not the
only policy option to lower student debt. If policymakers want more targeted
loan forgiveness, aimed at lower income individuals, there...
