This essay examines the cyclical behavior and stability properties of four different measures of the labor share of income in the United States from 1948 through 2006. The evidence suggests that the share exhibits instability. This instability is sensitive to the measure of labor share deployed...

We explore the hypothesis that income of the rich increases at the expense of income of the poor. In a simple linear regression model, the relative (to the median) incomes of the poor and the rich are significantly and inversely related. Using standard time-series methods, we demonstrate that...