We estimate the trend in the transitory variance of male earnings in the U.S. using the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1970 to 2004. Using both an error components model as well as simpler but only approximate methods, we find that the transitory variance started to increase in the...

This study uses data from the 1990, 1992, 1993 and 1996 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine how welfare policies and local economic conditions contribute to women's transitions into and out of female headship and into and out of welfare participation. It also...

This article builds on other reviews of changes in earnings inequality in the U.S. in tow important directions. First, the review is expanded to include other major industrialized countries, and second, the focus is broadened from earnings to household income. The general finding is that the...

Interest in cross-national comparisons of personal income distributions, low relative incomes, and income inequality in general has grown dramatically during the past five years. This paper summarizes and provides limited updates on a small part of what was learned in a large study undertaken...

The first draft of Chapter 3 in The Handbook of Income Distribution, edited by Anthony B. Atkinson and Francois Bourgignon, this paper reviews the empirical evidence on the level and trend in family income inequality in industrialized countries, primarily the OECD countries.

This paper uses data from the Luxembourg Income Study to explore the role of differences in supply shifts in explaining cross-national differences in the rise in earnings inequality. Changes in returns to age and education are estimated for eight countries using a common specification of...

Take-up of a social benefit is usually defined as receiving a benefit for which an individual or household is eligible. The take-up rate is the fraction of those eligible for a program who participate and receive a benefit or service. We survey estimates of take-up of social benefits around the...

One of the areas of policy research where randomized field trials have been utilized most intensively is welfare reform. Starting in the late 1960s with experimental tests of a negative income tax and continuing through current experimental tests of recent welfare reforms, randomized evaluations...

The decline in the employment-population ratios for men and women over the period 2000-2007 prior to the Great Recession represents an historic turnaround in the evolution of U.S. employment. The decline is disproportionately concentrated among the less educated and younger groups within the...