Using Consumer Expenditure Survey data, we obtain summary measures of the distributions of income and consumption for each quarter between 1980 and 1994. We find that the trends in the distribution of income and consumption and the response of these trends to changes in inflation and...

While much of the evidence suggests that there was an increase in inequality in the United States during the 1980s, the reasons are less evident. Using the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey data, the authors find that the inequality of consumption-expenditures, as well as the inequality of other...