Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
There have been numerous articles (e.g., Krugman in the NY Times) stating that disparities in life expectancy is growing. It is known that income inequality has grown in recent decades but some claim that health inequality is also growing. Janet Currie argues that the truth is not as bad as you think in a forthcoming article…
For the past few years, some economists have claims that increases in income inequality are due to increased cost of employee benefits such as health insurance. For instance, let’s say that health insurance cost $10,000 per worker. Workers with a wage of $20,000 have total compensation of $30,000 including benefits, and workers with wages of…
Numerous media outlets and academic studies have demonstrated that in the last few decades, income inequality has grown. However, not only are poor Americans making relatively less money compared to their richer peers in recent years, but poor individuals also have not experienced the same survival gains as the rich. Louise Sheiner reports on a…
Although executives and managers lead the way, in large part, the answer is doctors. See the chart below. Sources: John Bakija, Williams College “Jobs and Income Growth of Top Earners and the Causes of Changing Income Inequality: Evidence from U.S. Tax Return Data.” November 2010, Working Paper. Hat tip: Mother Jones.
Many economists have lamented that income inequality has grown over recent decades. Although it is true that wage inequality has increased, compensation inequality may not have. When I mention “compensation inequality,” I refer to the total package of compensation that a worker receives. This includes wages, health insurance, 401(k) benefits, and other non-wage forms of…
Many economists have noted that wage growth has not kept up with overall economic growth over the past few decades. We observe widening wage inequality since the 1970s. Are workers getting poorer relative to the owners of capital? Is a communist revolution needed to equalize the playing field? Economist Martin Feldstein thinks not. “Feldstein…
Income inequality has generally increased since the 1970s. Even for researchers who find that income inequality has Does this mean that happiness inequality has also increased? An NBER working paper by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers claims that this is not the case. Below is the a portion of the abstract. While there has been…