Income and wealth inequality rose over the first 150 years of US history. They rose in Britain before 1875, especially 1740–1810. The first half of the 20th century equalized pre-fisc incomes both in Britain and in America. From the 1970s to the 1990s inequality rose in both countries,...

This paper reviews the long run developments in the distribution of personal income and wealth. It also discusses suggested explanations for the observed patterns. We try to answer questions such as: What do we know, and how do we know, about the distribution of income and wealth over time? Are...

I evaluate the link between automation and the rise in top income concentration when inequality matters for macro. The novel mechanism is that automation redistributes income towards high-wealth households who save more, which lowers the interest rate and incites firms to automate more. To...

Motivated by the recent rise of populism in western democracies, we develop a model in which a populist backlash emerges endogenously in a growing economy. In the model, voters dislike inequality, especially the high consumption of "elites." Economic growth exacerbates inequality due to...

Motivated by the recent rise of populism in western democracies, we develop a tractable equilibrium model in which a populist backlash emerges endogenously in a strong economy. In the model, voters dislike inequality, especially the high consumption of "elites." Economic growth exacerbates...

In his 2014 book, Thomas Piketty argues that wealth inequality is sharply increasing in r-g and refers to rg as ‘the central contradiction of capitalist economics', where r is asset returns and g is real income growth. To assess whether inequality is increasing in the (r-g)-gap this paper: 1)...