Categories: Income Distribution

Winners and Losers in this Business Cycle

Posted by: Michael Mandel on August 26

Assuming that the boom ended in 2007, the new census data allows us to identify the big winners and losers in this business cycle. Obviously a high school or a…

The Economics of Envy

Posted by: Michael Mandel on November 27

Lou Uchitelle, in today’s NYT, has a front page article entitled “Very Rich Are Leaving the Merely Rich Behind.” In it he writes The opportunity to become abundantly rich is…

Young Americans Take It on the Chin

Posted by: Michael Mandel on March 20

I’m an optimist, but I’m forced to admit that this has not been a good decade for young Americans. See my story here….

Is Europe Really More Equal?

Posted by: Michael Mandel on November 09

I like France. I’ve spent portions of my last two vacations there, (pictures available on request) and would happily go back there again, even with all the troubles. But I…

Labor’s falling share of the economic pie

Posted by: Michael Mandel on July 20

I’ve got a new article about the implication of the decline in labor’s share of national income across the industrialized world. Take a look at it. Here are the charts:…

The Paradox of Risk and Mobility

Posted by: Michael Mandel on June 10

Is a riskier society more mobile? Paul Krugman writes in today’s NYT that …economic security is a thing of the past: year-to-year fluctuations in the incomes of working families are…

Immigrants and mobility

Posted by: Michael Mandel on June 06

Here’s a little chart showing that at least some immigrants are still upwardly mobile. In 1995, families headed by immigrants who entered the country in the 1980s had a 26.6%…

Income Inequality and Immigrants

Posted by: Michael Mandel on June 05

Steve Antler at Econopundit responds to today’s article in the NYT about the widening gap between the very rich and the rest of us. This US “gap between richest and…

Are Our Lives Riskier Today than in 1979?

Posted by: Michael Mandel on May 25

Okay, let’s throw this question open to everyone. In what ways are our lives (working/home) more risky than they were in 1979, and in what ways are they less risky?…

Feels Like 1996 All Over Again

Posted by: Michael Mandel on May 17

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m getting flashes of deja vu from the NYT’s multi-part series on class, followed by today’s WSJ story on consumer debt, with the headline “Lagging…

Absolute versus relative mobility: A Primer

Posted by: Michael Mandel on May 16

I’m coming back to the same point because it’s an important one: Absolute mobility matters more than relative mobility. *Absolute mobility means that living standards are increasing in absolute terms:…

The Real Truth About Mobility

Posted by: Michael Mandel on May 16

There’s a lot of discussion about income mobility today, but most of it blurs the real facts. For example, Kevin Drum writes that life roles have become more hardened. While…

Mobility vs Wage Gains

Posted by: Michael Mandel on May 15

Would you rather live in a society with a lot of mobility but no wage gains, or a society with a bit less mobility and good wage gains?