U.S. Income and Wealth Inequality Workshop

 

Teresa Ghilarducci

Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame

Williams College

Summer 1999-2003

 

Reading Packet Contents

 

The Numbers

 

“Causes of Rising Inequality” in Wolff pp. 5-8, 3 pages

 

Worksheet on Inequality, 1 page

 

From the U.S. Census Dept. Historical Income Tables, 5 pages

 

Ratios of High and Middle-Class wages: 1825-present, 1 page

 

Three graphs on Income Inequality, 3 pages.

 

“Estimates of the Functional Distribution of Income,” in Edward N. Wolff, Economics of Poverty, Inequality, and Discrimination, Cincinnati, Ohio: South Western College Publishing, 1997. p. 34, 1 page

 

“Describing the Distribution of Personal Earnings” in Contemporary  Labor Economics    C.MacConnell, Brue, MacPherson. Boston: Irwin-McGraw-Hill, 1999.

pp. 506-511, 6 pages

 

“Accounting Framework for Measuring Factor Shares”: in Edward N. Wolff, Economics of Poverty, Inequality, and Discrimination Cincinnati, Ohio: South Western College Publishing, 1997. p. 34, 1 page

 

Gini Coefficients and Percentage Share of Total Wealth and Income by Percentile Group and Quintile” in Wolff p. 372, 1 page.

 

Ellwod, David, “Winners and Losers in America; taking the Measure of New Economic Realities,” prepared for Aspen Institute Domestic Strategy Group Meeting, August 1998. 37 pages.

 

Injuries of Class

 

Goode, E. 1999. “For Good Health It Helps to Be Rich and Important” New York Times

4 pages.

 

“Blue Collar Work Is More Dangerous,” 1 graph.

 

“Smoking Incidence by Groups and Occupations,” 1 graph .

 

Labor Market

 

Labor Statistics, 1952-1997, from Maconnell et al. 4 pages.

 

Sources of Income by Income Group, 1 graph, 1 page.

 

Kuttner, Robert, 1997, "The Market for Labor" in Everything for Sale, New York. Alfred E. Knopf. 42 pages.

 

“Restaurants Hope.” Wall Street Journal. March 9, 2000 p. 1, 1 page.

 

Worksheet: What Generates Inequality, 1 page.

 

Internal Labor Market, 3 pages.

 

Growth in Median Income, graph, 1 page.

 

Discrimination

 

Only White Collar Females Have Done Better, Graph, 1 page

 

The Male and Female Wage Gap Got Better then Worse, Graph, 1 page

 

Education Matters But Being a White Male Maters More, Graph, 1 page

 

Working but Still Poor, Graph 1 page

 

“Income by sex and race” Graph 1 page

 

“Occupational Segregation” Table and worksheet,  2 pages

 

Juliane Malveaux 1987. "Comparable Worth and the Impact on Black  Women" in Slipping Through the Cracks: The Status of Black Women, 1987. edited by Margaret Simms and Julianne" by Oxford, England, 1987 Transactions Books  20 pages

 

“Theories of Labor Market Discrimination” in Connell et al pp 436-457, 21 pages

 

Wilson, William Julius, When Work Disappears, Chapter 5 p. 111-148  37 pages


Unions

 

“Test Your Knowledge; Workers Rights and Unions” 1 page

 

When Unions Raise Wages Who Pays? 1 page

 

Drezean. 2000. “Worker Productivity Grew in the late 1999” Wall Street Journal p. 12 ,1 page

 

Notes on Bargaining Power, Ghilarducci, 1 page

 

Union Density, Economic Policy Institute for the Steelworkers, Graph, 1 page,

 

“Job Growth versus membership Growth” Economic Policy Institute for the

Steelworkers, Graph, 1 page,

 

“Declining = Declining Bargaining Power,” Economic Policy Institute for the

Steelworkers, Graph, 1 page,

 

“Mother Jones Meets the Micro chip” The Economist June 12, 1999 1 page

 

“The Road to Union City” by Amy Dean in This is Not Your father’s Labor Movement edited by J.Mort ,10 pages

 

“Unions Cause Employer to Put More wages in Pensions (Savings)   Ghilarducci, Graph, 1 page 

 

Debt and Wealth Inequality

 

Personal Savings has vanished, Graph 1 page

 

Household Debt soars to Record Highs Graph 1 page

 

Wealth Grew for the Wealthy, Graph 1 page

 

“Balance Sheet of Total Household Wealth” in Wolff p. 351

 

Scher, Amy. 1998. “Credit Card Pushers; Pump up Profits and Risk, Dollars and Sense Nov. Dec. 5 pages

 

Federal Reserve Research Roundup, a publication of the Financial Markets Center, www.fmcenter.org.  “Saving and Investments,” 7 pages

 

The Power of Compound Interest and How Savings Generates Inequality prepared by T. Ghilarducci  2 tables

 

 

Consumption and Inequality

 

Uchitelle, L. 1999 May 3, 1998 “Keeping up with the Gates?  New York Times May 3, 1998

 

“What’s Driving Consumption?” Juliet Schor leads a Debate on America’s passion for Spending Boston Review Summer 1999 ,20 pages

 

 

Government Solutions: Taxes and Benefits 

 

Ghilarducci, Teresa and Bluestone, Rewarding Work: Feasible Antipoverty Policy" with Barry Bluestone, The American Prospect, May - June, 1996, p. 40- 46.

 

Burns, Jodi. , “Affirmative Action in employment,” Briefing paper, Institute for Women’s Policy Research,  no date

 

Wessell, D. “Again the Rich Get Richer” Wall Street Journal

 

“State and Local Taxes Hit Poor and Middle Class” 1996. Citizens for Tax Justice, Washington DC. 9 pages

 

“Average Taxes Paid and Benefits Received” 1997. Wolff. P. 60, 1 page

Global Distribution

 

“The Distribution of Income Among advanced Countries based on the Luxembourg Income Study” in Wolff p. 77.

 

Hunt, Alan. “A Flawed Protest Actually Produces Good Results,” April 20, 2000  Wall Street Journal 1 page

 

Mazur, Jay. “Labor’s New Internationalism” 2000 vol 79, no. 1 Foreign Affairs 13 pages

 

“Brothers up in arms” 1998. The Economist, October 3. P 25 – 28. 3 pages

 

World Income Distribution prepared by Bernard Wasow, TCF, 3 pages