This paper examines the level and distribution of equivalent after tax, after transfer money income in Canada, the United States, the UK, Germany and Sweden using micro-data from the Luxembourg Income Study from 1969/70 to 1994/95. It concentrates on inequality within and between birth cohorts....

Various measures of the improvement in U.S. living standards provide contrasting pictures of the pace of overall economic progress. Per capita consumption rose 37 percent from 1973 to 1993, but median family income was unchanged. This paper accounts for the striking divergence between these...