Funded Research
Changing Income Inequality in a Period of Economic Expansion, 1990 to 2000
Source: USDA
Active: 12/01/02 - 11/30/05
Investigator(s):
Diane McLaughlin
Spatial variation in changes in household income inequality from 1980 to 1990 have raised important questions about the causes of such variation. Is it due to industrial restructuring, changes in household structure or labor supply, or other attributes of places? This question is currently being answered. What we don't know, is whether these factors that affected change in household income inequality across counties from 1980 to 1990 will have the same influence during a period of economic expansion--1990 to 2000. Prior research has documented stronger effects of industrial restructuring on change in income inequality in nonmetro than metro counties. Will this difference persist or widen as the economy expands? The availability of data from the 2000 U.S. Census of Population and Housing makes it possible to answer these questions. These answers will increase recognition that changes observed at the national level play out differently in localities and could aid in developing local, state and federal policy related to consequences of social and economic change. The overall objective of this study is to examine how industrial restructuring, changes in family structure, and changes in labor supply in U.S. counties have influenced changes in household income inequality in counties from 1990 to 2000. There are four more specific objectives: 1) to examine the geographic patterns of change in household income inequality from 1990 to 2000, 2) to identify counties that have experienced increases or decreases in income inequality and the shifts in households within the income distribution that drove overall shifts, 3) to estimate the association between industrial restructuring, changes in family structure and changes in labor supply and change in income inequality during a period of economic expansion for all counties and in metro and nonmetro counties, and 4) to examine the factors associated with changes in race-specific household income inequality across all counties and nonmetro and metro counties.
