We examine the economic well-being of the elderly, using the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW). Compared to the conventional measures of income, the LIMEW is a comprehensive measure that incorporates broader definitions of income from wealth, government expenditures, and...

Using PSID data for the years 1984 to 1999, we estimate the level and severity of asset poverty. Our results indicate that the share of asset-poor households remained almost the same and the severity of poverty increased during this period, despite the growth in the economy and the financial...

The standard official measure of household economic well-being in the United States is gross money income. The general consensus is that such measures are limited because they ignore other crucial determinants of well-being. We modify the standard measure to account for one such determinant:...

A central issue confronting soon-to-retire workers (those aged 4764) is whether they will have command over enough resources (both private and public) to maintain a decent standard of living in retirement. Typically, the adequacy of projected retirement income is judged in relation to some...

Existing empirical schemas of class structure do not specify the capitalist class in an adequate manner. We propose a schema in which the specification of capitalist households is based on wealth thresholds. Individuals in noncapitalist households are assigned class locations based on their...

Recent work has documented a rising degree of wealth inequality in the United States between 1983 and 1998. In this paper, we look at another dimension of the distribution, polarization. Using techniques developed by Esteban and Ray (1994) and further extended by D'Ambrosio (2001), we examine...

Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we investigate occupational and industrial mobility of individuals over the 1969-1980 and 1981-1993 periods in the U.S. We find that workers changed both occupations and industries more frequently in the later period. For example, occupational mobility...