This paper investigates the impact of economic growth, and more specifically robust economic growth along with other macroeconomic determinants, on poverty levels using both the U.S. official measure of poverty and an estimated time series of Sen indices of poverty. The results reveal that the...

Recent increases in earnings inequality have been described as "enormous." Is it that we are experiencing a unique shift toward greater inequality, or are we returning to a more normal state of affairs for the American economy? The recent availability of six decades of data together with...

Micro data from audited tax returns are used to evaluate changes in the actual progressivity of U.S. federal income taxes in 1979 and 1988, which is distinct from apparent progressivity. Statistical inference methods are applied to global measures of both actual and apparent residual and...

This paper develops distribution-free statistical inference procedures to test for changes in tax progressivity. Tests for both the Reynolds-Smolensky index of residual progression and the Kakwani index of liability progression are provided. Changes in tax progressivity in three Western...