Winners and Losers over the 1990s Business Cycles in Germany, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States

This paper uses kernel density estimation to show how after-tax household size-adjusted income changed between the peak years of the 1990s business cycle in Germany, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States. Great Britain and the United States experienced substantial growth in average income, a decline in inequality, and a movement of their income distributions to the right. In contrast, Germany and Japan had less income growth, together with a rise in inequality and a decline in the middle mass of their distributions that spread mostly to the right, much like the United States experienced over its 1980s business cycle.