State Income Inequality Research Articles

Changes in State Income Inequality from 1981 to 1987

This paper examines the changes in state-level income inequality from 1981 to 1987. Family income inequality is measured with Gini coefficients calculated for each state. Changes in these measures during this period appear to reflect, in part, the uneven economic restructuring across the states and regions during the 1980s.

Variation in Intracity Income Inequality in the Mid-Atlantic States

ABSTRACT: Explanations for dissimilarities in intracity income inequality have been dominated by Kuznets's hypothesis. It is argued that this identifies statistical associations rather than causal relationships. An alternative model is presented which focuses on the ideas of James O'Connor and Claus Offe concerning the effects of employers' market power on the income of their workers. The model is tested for 274 mid-Atlantic cities in 1980. The explanatory power and main propositions of the model are confirmed and the effects of differences in human capital are shown to be weak. Suggestions are made for improving the basic formulation which is offered.

State Power, Sociodemographic Characteristics, and Income Inequality: A Cross-National Analysis

Research on the determinants of the distribution of income among individuals has indicated that several aspects of state power as well as various sociodemographic characteristics have considerable impact. Using cross-national data, this paper finds that external power and political and bureaucratic strength both have significant direct effects on income distributions, acting to make them more equal. Among sociodemographic characteristics, education is found to have significant effects on income inequality by increasing the income shares of the upper-middle income group at the expense of the poorest income group.

Interstate Population Migration and State Income Inequality: A Simultaneous Equation Approach

What is controversial is the nature of the impact of internal migration on regional rates of growth of per capita income and on regional inequality in per capita income. Gunnar Myrdal has argued that migrants tend to be in the most productive ages, and that therefore the regions receiving migrants benefit economically, while the originating regions are harmed. Because it is the advanced and expanding regions which are usually the receiving regions, internal migration, according to Myrdal, widens the gap in per capita income between the advanced and the poorer regions.2 On the other hand, for a specific case, Richard A. Easterlin has concluded that in the United States since 1880 the important forces in the convergence of per capita income levels ... [has] been the inter-regional migration of persons ..., Elsewhere, it has been shown that it is impossible on theoretical grounds to be certain of the effect on inequality of internal migration: it is necessary to consider the economic and demographic structures of the regions, whether or not the more rapidly expanding regions are also the advanced regions, and whether the time horizon is long-run or short-run.4 The main purpose of this article is to present two econometric models constructed primarily with a view towards examining the effect of interstate migration on the inequality of per capita income among the states. Important auxillary questions will also be explored. The models are fitted with United States data for the period 1940 to 1950. Although our findings may apply to the United States for other decades, as well as to other advanced countries, further research is required to ascertain this. The period was one when, as a result of the war and its after-effects, labor