Data show that middle-income households have continued moving down, and less so up, the income distribution in the United States since the 1970s-a phenomenon that is often referred to as the polarization or 'hollowing out' of the income distribution. While the level of income polarization is...

The paper uses a combination of micro-level datasets to document the rise of income polarization-what some have referred to as the 'hollowing out' of the income distribution-in the United States, since the 1970s. While in the initial decades more middle-income households moved up, rather than...