Deaton Review Country Studies: A Trans-Atlantic Comparison of Inequalities in Incomes and Outcomes over Five Decades

几十年来，经济学研究人员和政策制定者一直担心劳动力市场结果的不平等。辩论的重点是劳动力技能构成的变化，教育程度和未被观察到的技能等技能的回归，以及工会、最低工资和贸易协定等制度的变化。2019冠状病毒病大流行震惊了全球经济，对收入、教育、技能和就业产生了影响，从而影响了不平等和公共政策应对措施的设计。该项目将在欧洲和北美的主要经济体中使用一个连贯的框架，研究一系列广泛的不平等现象，以及COVID-19大流行如何改变了这些不平等现象，以及每个经济体的政策如何应对。本研究项目超越了各国不平等趋势的描述及其原因，研究了不同阶段的政策对不同群体的潜在作用。它还研究了人力资本政策和劳动力市场法规如何影响市场不平等，以及税收和转移支付如何减少可支配收入的不平等。研究结果将为发达国家提高收入和减少收入不平等的劳动力市场政策提供重要投入。调查结果还将有助于确立美国在劳动力市场结果平等方面的全球领先地位。该项目由来自欧洲和北美的17个研究小组组成，旨在了解高收入国家经济不平等的驱动因素。这些小组将动员大量数据来源，详细研究受教育程度、种族、民族和移民身份之间的差异，以及家庭能够缓解收入冲击的机制。在一些国家，调查数据包括与行政记录的直接联系，从而可以更丰富和准确地评估各国之间和生命历程中的不平等。来自美国的团队将使用来自当前人口调查（CPS）年度社会经济补充（ASEC）的公共访问数据，以及提供CPS ASEC与社会保障管理局详细收入记录（DER）之间直接联系的限制访问调查和管理数据。然后，该项目继续进行四个相关的研究方向。第一部分使用统一的数据来研究COVID-19大流行之前和期间几种经济不平等的演变。第二部分详细考察了劳动力市场的不平等。第三部分强调了非大学参与者的教育和培训的作用，并侧重于教育系统中巨大的跨国差异对不平等的影响。最后一部分着眼于税收和福利制度及其在解决家庭收入不平等问题上的有效性。研究结果将为发达国家提高收入和减少收入不平等的劳动力市场政策提供重要投入。调查结果还将有助于确立美国在劳动力市场结果平等方面的全球领先地位。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Economics researchers and policy makers have worried about inequality in labor market outcomes for several decades. The debate focuses on changes in skill composition of the labor force, returns to skills such as education attainment and unobserved skills, and in institutions such as unions, minimum wage, and trade agreements. The Covid-19 pandemic shocked the global economy with implications for earnings, education, skills, and jobs, and thus inequality and the design of public policy responses. This project will use a coherent framework, across the major economies of Europe and North America, to study a broad set of inequalities and how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed these inequalities , and how policy in each economy has responded. This research project goes beyond the description and causes of inequality trends across countries, to study the potential role of policies at different stages on different groups. It also looks at how human capital policies and labor market regulations influence market inequalities, and how taxes and transfers can reduce inequalities in disposable income. The results of this will provide important inputs into labor market policies that could increase incomes and reduce income inequality in developed countries. The results will also help establish the US as the global leader in equality of labor market outcomes.The project involves a network of 17 groups of researchers from across Europe and North America to understand the drivers of economic inequalities across high income countries. The teams will mobilize a vast array of data sources to study in detail differences across educational attainment, race, ethnicity, and immigration status, and the mechanisms by which households are able to smooth income shocks. In some countries the survey data include a direct link to administrative records, permitting a more rich and accurate assessment of inequalities across countries and the life course. The team from the United States will use both public-access data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social Economic Supplement (ASEC), as well as restricted access survey and administrative that provides a direct link between the CPS ASEC and Social Security Administration’s Detailed Earnings Records (DER). The project then proceeds with four related research strands. The first strand uses harmonized data to study the evolution of several economic inequalities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second strand examines labor market inequalities in detail. The third strand highlights the role of education and training for non-university attendees and focusses on the impact of large cross-country differences in educational systems on inequality. The final strand looks at the tax and welfare systems and their effectiveness at addressing family income inequality. The results of this will provide important inputs into labor market policies that could increase incomes and reduce income inequality in developed countries. The results will also help establish the US as the global leader in equality of labor market outcomes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.