Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998 (Series Updated to 2000 Available)
Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998 (Series Updated to 2000 Available)
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美国的收入不平等，1913 年至 1998 年（系列已更新至 2000 年）
DOI：
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发表时间：
2001
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Emmanuel Saez
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
T. Piketty;T. Piketty;Emmanuel Saez;Emmanuel Saez
本文利用个人纳税申报表数据，对1913 - 1998年美国最高收入和工资份额进行了新的同质序列分析。最高收入和工资份额在世纪呈现出U形模式。我们的系列表明，不平等动态的“技术变革”观点不能完全解释观察到的事实。资本所有者在大萧条和第二次世界大战期间经历的巨大冲击似乎产生了永久性的影响：20世纪90年代末，顶级资本收入仍然低于第一次世界大战前。一个合理的解释是，累进税大幅降低了财富分配顶端的财富积累速度，阻止了巨额财富从这些冲击中完全恢复。工资不平等的证据表明，最高工资份额在二战前持平，在战争期间急剧下降。自20世纪60年代至70年代以来，最高工资份额已开始从这一冲击中复苏，目前高于二战前。我们强调社会规范的作用，作为一个潜在的解释工资份额的模式。所有图表均已更新至2000年，并以Excel格式载于本文件的数据附录。
This paper presents new homogeneous series on top shares of income and wages from 1913 to 1998 in the US using individual tax returns data. Top income and wages shares display a U-shaped pattern over the century. Our series suggest that the 'technical change' view of inequality dynamics cannot fully account for the observed facts. The large shocks that capital owners experienced during the Great Depression and World War II seem to have had a permanent effect: top capital incomes are still lower in the late 1990s than before World War I. A plausible explanation is that steep progressive taxation, by reducing drastically the rate of wealth accumulation at the top of the distribution, has prevented large fortunes to recover fully yet from these shocks. The evidence on wage inequality shows that top wage shares were flat before WWII and dropped precipitously during the war. Top wage shares have started recovering from this shock since the 1960s-1970s and are now higher than before WWII. We emphasize the role of social norms as a potential explanation for the pattern of wage shares. All the tables and figures have been updated to the year 2000, the are available in excel format in the data appendix of the paper.