We document the demographic and economic forces underlying changes in
income inequality among single mother families over the past three
decades in the United States. Using decomposable measures of after-tax
income-to-needs inequality, we examine within- and between-group
inequality based on education attainment, age, past marital status,
race, and employment status. We also conduct income factor
decompositions to quantify the relative contributions of earnings,
transfers, other income, and taxes to inequality. Our results from the
March Current Population Survey show that income-to-needs inequality
rose nearly 30 percent between 1979 and 2005. The demographic
decompositions indicate that most of the change in inequality is
occurring within groups, in part because of large, offsetting
between-group changes in population shares and relative mean incomes.
The most prominent economic factor underlying the rise in income
inequality among single mother families is labor-market earnings, the
latter of which was induced by rising variance of hourly wages.
Presented by:
James Ziliak (Department of Economics, University of Kentucky, USA) Co-author: Christopher Bollinger
Date & time:
February 9, 2009 4:00 pm - February 9, 2009 12:00 am
External seminars home