Laboratories of (In)equality? Redistributive Policy and Income Inequality in theAmericanStates

• DOI: 10.1111/psj.12094
• Publication Date: 2014-11-28T16:57:00Z
• Authors: Megan E. Hatch; Elizabeth Rigby
• Keywords: 05 social sciences; 8. Economic growth; 1. No poverty; 10. No inequality; 0506 political science

Prior literature has emphasized demographic, economic, and political explanations for increasing income inequality in the U nited S tates, with little attention paid to role of state‐level policy. This is despite great variation across states both level rate at which it rising. paper asks whether differences state policy choices can help explain this variation; specifically, we examined a range redistributive policies enacted between 1980 2005 identified four common approaches likely impact inequality: taxes on wealthy, poor, spending labor market policies. We used pooled cross‐sectional time‐series data fixed‐effects model assess relationship states’ use each approach two measures Gini coefficient share top 1 percent. find played significant shaping states. For three these approaches, found less following expansions Yet, another, opposite pattern. These findings highlight importance inequality, have implications designing reduce since success efforts depends redistribute wealth.