This paper uses Social Security Administration longitudinal earnings micro data since 1937 to analyze the evolution of inequality and mobility in the United States. Earnings inequality follows a U-shape pattern, decreasing sharply up to 1953 and increasing steadily afterwards. We find that...

Earnings inequality in the United States has increased rapidly over the last three decades, but little is known about the role of firms in this trend. For example, how much of the rise in earnings inequality can be attributed to rising dispersion between firms in the average wages they pay, and...

Using panel data on individual earnings histories from 1957 to 2013, we document empirical facts about the distribution of lifetime earnings in the United States. First, from the cohort that entered the labor market in 1957 to the cohort that entered in 1983, median lifetime earnings of men...