This article presents new research on income-based child indicators for immigrant children from 17 different national backgrounds and children of parents born in Sweden observed during the 3-year periods 1983-85, 1995-97 and 2008-10. This research examines mean household income, representation at the top of the income distribution and relative poverty differ for immigrant children from the corr...

Growing inequality in the developed world has led to calls for increasing countries’ top marginal tax rates. Crucially, the optimal top marginal income tax rate depends on people’s tendency to migrate in response to changes in the tax rate. Changes in tax rates and and tax policy must take into account that increases in income tax rates may compel people to leave a country or state. This paper ...

This paper studies the evolution of income concentration in Japan from 1886 to 2005 by constructing long-run series of top income shares and top wage income shares, using income tax statistics. We find that (i) income concentration was extremely high throughout the preWWII period during which the nation underwent rapid industrialization; (ii) a drastic de-concentration of income at the top took...

Top income inequality has risen sharply in the United States over the last 30 years but remained low and stable in economies like France and Japan. Why? This paper explores three theoretical mechanisms that endogenize the amount of top income inequality. The first model suggests that the rate of growth of top incomes is a key determinant. A rise in the returns to experience or an increase in ef...

Top income inequality rose sharply in the United States over the last 35 years but increased only slightly in economies like France and Japan. Why? This paper explores amodel inwhich heterogeneous entrepreneurs, broadly interpreted, exert effort to generate exponential growth in their incomes. On its own, this force leads to rising inequality. Creative destruction by outside innovators restrain...

Using state-level variation over time in the top deciles of the income distribution, we observe that nonrich households consume a larger share of their current income when exposed to higher top income levels. We argue that permanent income, wealth effects, or upward local price pressures cannot be the sole explanation for this finding. Instead, we show that the budget shares non-rich households...

We use a new Australian longitudinal income tax dataset, Alife, covering 1991–2017, to examine levels and trends in the persistence top-income group membership, focussing on top 1%. summarize multiple ways, documenting rates of remaining groups; re-entry top; changes associated with transitions; we also compare for annual ‘permanent’ incomes. Regardless perspective taken, increased markedly ove...

We use a new Australian longitudinal income tax dataset, Alife, covering 1991–2017, to examine levels and trends in the persistence top-income group membership, focussing on top 1%. summarize multiple ways, documenting rates of remaining groups; re-entry top; changes associated with transitions; we also compare for annual ‘permanent’ incomes. Regardless perspective taken, increased markedly ove...

The paper analyzes the relation between growth and income inequality in the US during the post-war years (1953–2008). We show that the income of the top income groups is more sensitive to growth, defined broadly as current growth and changes in expectations of future growth, compared to the income of the lower income groups. We provide evidence that this increased sensitivity arises for two rea...