美国收入不平等的演变、其后果及一些政策措施

The Evolution of Income Inequalityinthe United States,Its Consequences,and SomePolicy Measures by Tanweer AkramIndependent Scholar and Khawaja MamunLongwood University March2026 Affiliations:Tanweer Akram is anindependent scholar. Heworks for an overseasintegrated financial regulator andformerly served as senior vice president/senior economist at Citi.Khawaja Mamun is Dean of the College ofBusiness and Economics and Professor of Economics at Longwood University;Disclaimer:The authors’institutional affiliations are provided solely for identification purposes. Views expressed are merely those of theauthors. The standard disclaimer holds;Acknowledgements:The authorsare grateful toparticipants at variousseminars for theirvaluablecomments. They thank the copy editors for their editorial assistance.*Corresponding author.Email: tanweer.akram@gmail.com.ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6646-0902**Email: mamunka@longwood.edu.ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9669-2897 The Levy Economics Institute Working Paper Collection presents research in progress by Levy Institute scholars andconference participants. The purpose of the series is to disseminate ideas to and elicit comments from academics andprofessionals. LevyEconomics Institute of Bard College, founded in 1986, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan,independently funded research organization devoted to public service. Through scholarship andeconomic research, it generates viable, effective public policy responsesto important economicproblems that profoundly affect the quality of life in the United States and abroad. Levy Economics InstituteP.O. Box 5000Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000http://www.levyinstitute.orgCopyright © Levy Economics Institute 2026All rights reservedISSN 1547-366X ABSTRACT This paper discussesthekey concepts and main stylized factsconcerning household real incomeandincome inequality in the United States in recent decades.It explains the widely usedsummarymeasures of incomedistribution,which reveal that income inequality in theUShasbeen steadily rising.It explores the economic implications and social consequences of theevolution of householdrealincome and income inequalityand considers ongoing debates aboutpolicy measures to mitigate the adverse effectsof elevated income inequality, such asuniversalbasicincome and job guarantees. KEYWORDS:Household Real Income;Income Inequality;Macroeconomicand Social Effectsof Inequality;UniversalBasic Income;Job Guarantee JEL CLASSIFICATIONS:D10;D31;D63;E02;E64 SECTION I: INTRODUCTION In the United States, rich households have become richer, while lower-income householdshavenot gained much since the 1970s(Horowitz, Igielnik, and Arditi2020). Indeed,based onallwidely used metrics of incomedistribution,it is unequivocal that incomeinequality hasworsened.There are many reasons for thiswidening;the increase cannot and shouldnot beattributedtoone single factor. There arevariousdebates in the literature on the causes of incomeinequality in the UnitedStates.Likewise,there are multiple and different proposals foraddressingthisinequality, two of which—namely auniversalbasic income and a jobguarantee—are briefly discussed here. Though the primary objective of these proposalsisnotincome inequalitymitigationper se,these policieswill have repercussionson labor markets,employment,and incomes,and are thereforeworthserious consideration and critical assessment. The paper is structured as follows. Section II describes the key stylized facts concerning thedistribution of income in the United States in the past several decades. Section III presents fourkey summary measures of income inequality. Section IV brieflyaddresses the cause of risingincome inequality. Section V points out the social, economic, and political consequences of theelevated and rising income inequality. It alsodiscusses two proposals,namelyuniversal basicincome and job guarantee, that could be policy optionstoreduceincome inequality. Section Vconcludes. SECTION II: THE STYLIZED FACTS CONCERNING INCOME DISTRIBUTION The income inequality discussed in the paper is that of pre-tax household real income, asreported by the USCensus Bureau.It is based on data about the amount of money incomereceived, outside of capital gains, by householdsfrom the following sources: earnings;unemployment compensation;workers’ compensation;SocialSecurity;supplementalsecurityincome;public assistance;veterans’payments;survivors’benefits;pension or retirementincome;interest, dividends, rents, royalties,estatesand trusts;educational assistance;alimony;child support;financial assistance fromnon-government sources;and other income.The inequalitydoes not reflect non-cash benefits, such as food stamps and Medicare.Income andearningsover time are adjusted for the cost of living using an appropriateconsumer price index(CPI), namelytheCPI-U-RS, whichis an estimate of the CPI for all urban consumers,publishedby the Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS). A clear and distinct manner of ill