What's the Limit of Current Estimates of Inequality in the West?

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Bottom 50% of the distribution has experienced zero growth pre tax and transfer. But after taxes and transfers, its income has grown by about ty % since 19 80. That is still much, much less than a growth at the top of the distribution. So our conclusion here is that despite important changes in in government transfers,. that has not been enough to significantly lift the income of a working class americans of the bottom 50%.

Gabriel Zucman of the University of California, Berkeley talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his research on inequality and the distribution of income in the United States over the last 35 years. Zucman finds that there has been no change in income for the bottom half of the income distribution over this time period with large gains going to the top 1%. The conversation explores the robustness of this result to various assumptions and possible explanations for the findings.