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Selected issues in the rise of income inequality.
- Article from:
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Brookings Papers on Economic Activity
- Article date:
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September 22, 2007
- Author:
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Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2007 Brookings Institution. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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INCREASED AMERICAN INCOME INEQUALITY, in particular the increased skewness at the very top of the income distribution, has received enormous attention. This paper surveys three aspects of rising inequality that are usually discussed separately: inequality within the bottom 90 percent, inequality within the top 10 percent, and international differences in inequality, particularly among top earners.
We begin by examining data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) on income ratios between the 90th, 50th, and 10th percentiles, both for men and women separately and for the two sexes combined. We then examine several proposed explanations of changes in relative incomes within ...