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Cited by 151Income, Poverty, and InequalityLabor market dynamics and wage inequalityEconomic Theory and Policy

Distributional National Accounts: Methods and Estimates for the United States

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Piketty, Thomas, Saez, Emmanuel, Zucman, Gabriel·2016·National Bureau of Economic Research
DOI 10.3386/w22945
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Abstract

This paper combines tax, survey, and national accounts data to estimate the distribution of national income in the United States since 1913.Our distributional national accounts capture 100% of national income, allowing us to compute growth rates for each quantile of the income distribution consistent with macroeconomic growth.We estimate the distribution of both pre-tax and post-tax income, making it possible to provide a comprehensive view of how government redistribution affects inequality.Average pre-tax national income per adult has increased 60% since 1980, but we find that it has stagnated for the bottom 50% of the distribution at about $16,000 a year.The pre-tax income of the middle class-adults between the median and the 90th percentile-has grown 40% since 1980, faster than what tax and survey data suggest, due in particular to the rise of tax-exempt fringe benefits.Income has boomed at the top: in 1980, top 1% adults earned on average 27 times more than bottom 50% adults, while they earn 81 times more today.The upsurge of top incomes was first a labor income phenomenon but has mostly been a capital income phenomenon since 2000.The government has offset only a small fraction of the increase in inequality.The reduction of the gender gap in earnings has mitigated the increase in inequality among adults.The share of women, however, falls steeply as one moves up the labor income distribution, and is only 11% in the top 0.1% today.

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  • Real incomes for low-income households have declined in recent years.

    “The second factor that drives a wedge between trends in Pell shares and our percentile-based measures of access is the well-known fact that real incomes have fallen for low-income households in recent years (e.g., Piketty et al. 2016).”

    From Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility (2017) · cites this paper as Piketty et al. 2016

    Section 4.3 reports that average pre-tax income fell since 1980 for working-age adults in the bottom 50%. But it says income for the bottom 50% overall stagnated, while post-tax income rose for low-income seniors. The unqualified claim that real incomes fell for low-income households therefore overstates the finding. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 26

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  3. Atkinson, Anthony, Thomas Piketty, and Emmanuel Saez. 2011. "Top Incomes in the Long-Run of History", Journal of Economic Literature, 49(1), 3-71.
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  8. Fullerton, Don and Gilbert E. Metcalf. 2002. "Tax incidence," in: A. J. Auerbach and M. Feldstein (eds.), Handbook of Public Economics, Volume 4, chapter 26, 1787-1872 (North- Holland: Amsterdam).
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  10. Galor, Oded and Omer Moav. 2006. "Das Human Kapital: A Theory of the Demise of the Class Structure," Review of Economic Studies 73, 85-117.
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  12. Karabarbounis, Loukas and Brent Neiman. 2014. "The Global Decline of the Labor Share." Quarterly Journal of Economics 129(1), 61-103.
  13. King, Willford I. 1927. "Wealth Distribution in the Continental United States at the Close of 1921", Journal of the American Statistical Association, 22, 135-153.
  14. Kopczuk, Wojciech, Emmanuel Saez, and Jae Song. 2010, "Earnings Inequality and Mobility in the United States: Evidence from Social Security Data since 1937," Quarterly Journal of Economics 125(1), 91-128.
  15. Kuznets, Simon. 1955. "Economic Growth and Income Inequality." American Economic Review, 45(1), 1-28.
  16. McCully, Clinton. 2014. "Integration of Micro and Macro data on Consumer Income and Expenditure," in Measuring Economic Stability and Progress, D. Jorgenson, J. S.Landefeld, and P. Schreyer, editors, University of Chicago Press, 2014.
  17. Pierce, Brooks. 2001. "Compensation Inequality, 1913-1998," Quarterly Journal of Eco- nomics 116(4), 1493-1525.
  18. Piketty, Thomas. 2003. "Income Inequality in France, 1901-1998." Journal of Political Economy, 111(5): 1004-1042.
  19. Piketty, Thomas. 2014. Capital in the 21st Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
  20. Piketty, Thomas, and Emmanuel Saez. 2003. "Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998," Quarterly Journal of Economics 118(1), 1-39.
  21. Piketty, Thomas and Emmanuel Saez. 2007. "How Progressive is the US Federal Tax System? A Historical and International Perspective," Journal of Economic Perspectives 21(1), 3-24.
  22. Piketty, Thomas, and Gabriel Zucman. 2014. "Capital is Back: Wealth-Income Ratios in Rich Countries, 1700-2010," Quarterly Journal of Economics 129(3), 1255-1310.
  23. Saez, Emmanuel. 2017. "Taxing the Rich More: Preliminary Evidence from the 2013 Tax Increase," Tax Policy and the Economy, ed. Robert Moffitt, (Cambridge: MIT Press), Volume
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Cited by

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Authors
Piketty, T., Saez, E., & Zucman, G.
Affiliations
National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
ORCID
Piketty, Thomas
Venue
National Bureau of Economic Research
Publisher
National Bureau of Economic Research
Published
2016-12
DOI
10.3386/w22945
OpenAlex
W2900991510
Cited by
151
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 2
Type
report
Language
en
Open access
Locations
National Bureau of Economic Research (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (1559014)
  • Russell Sage Foundation
  • Sage Foundation
  • Sandler Foundation
  • Institute for New Economic Thinking (340831)
  • Laura and John Arnold Foundation
  • Washington Center for Equitable Growth
  • European Commission
  • FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (340831)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Income, Poverty, and Inequality
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › General Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economic Theory and Policy
Keywords
income distribution, distributional national accounts, income inequality, top incomes, capital income, labor income, government redistribution, gender pay gap, United States

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