issue Inequality & Mobility

Equitable Growth supports research and policy analysis on how trends in economic inequality and mobility and changes in the economy have affected the concentration of wealth, income, and earnings, and how these distributional shifts have affected the promise of economic security and opportunity.

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During the mid-20th century, strong economic growth was broadly shared, as incomes increased and children could expect a better quality of life than their parents, though significant disparities across demographic groups remained. In recent decades, wealth, income, and earnings inequality have been rising and mobility declining, and demographic disparities persist. Better understanding these trends and their implications for economic growth will inform evidence-backed policies that improve growth and mobility for people across incomes, regions, and demographic groups.

Featured Research

In Conversation

In Conversation with Miles Corak

Inequality & Mobility
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U.S. economic mobility trends and outcomes

Inequality & Mobility
In Conversation

In conversation with Sasha Killewald

Inequality & Mobility
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GDP 2.0: Measuring who prospers when the U.S. economy grows

Inequality & Mobility
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Stratification economics: What it is and how it advances our understanding of inequality

Inequality & Mobility
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Six charts that explain how inequality in the United States changed over the past 20 years

Inequality & Mobility
TOPICS: 1
TOPICS: GDP 2.0

Explore Content in Inequality & Mobility2537

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Vision 2020

Aligning U.S. labor law with worker preferences for labor representation

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International trade policy that works for U.S. workers

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Rebuilding U.S. labor market wage standards

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The economic imperative of enacting paid family leave across the United States

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Addressing the need for affordable, high-quality early childhood care and education for all in the United States

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Fair work schedules for the U.S. economy and society: What’s reasonable, feasible, and effective

FamiliesInequality & MobilityLabor
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Earnings instability and mobility over our working lives: Improving short- and long-term economic well-being for U.S. workers

LaborFamiliesInequality & Mobility
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Policies to strengthen our nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

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A modest tax reform proposal to roll back federal tax policy to 1997

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Good U.S. monetary policy can’t fix bad U.S. fiscal policy

Inequality & MobilityTax & Macroeconomics
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Fighting the next recession in the United States with law and regulation, not just fiscal and monetary policies

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Race and the lack of intergenerational economic mobility in the United States

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Experts on the issue

Grantee

Heather Sarsons

University of Chicago

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Grantee

Katherine Thomas

New York University

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Guest Author

Naomi Zewde

University of California, Los Angels

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Grantee

Joan Williams

University of California, Hastings College of Law

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Grantee

Fenaba Addo

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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