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
report

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

Reset
working paper

Hard Times: Routine Schedule Unpredictability and Material Hardship among Service Sector Workers

Inequality & MobilityLabor
working paper

What Explains Race/Ethnic Inequality in Job Quality in the Service Sector?

Inequality & MobilityLabor
post

How U.S. workers’ just-in-time schedules perpetuate racial and ethnic inequality

FamiliesInequality & MobilityLabor
post

School segregation undermines U.S. economic mobility and dynamism

Inequality & MobilityFamilies
report

U.S. school segregation in the 21st century

Inequality & MobilityFamilies
Past Event

Vision 2020: Evidence for a Stronger Economy

Inequality & MobilityLabor
post

The political influence and preferences of the U.S. economic elite

CompetitionInequality & Mobility
post

Public investment is crucial to strengthening U.S. economic growth and tackling inequality

FamiliesInequality & MobilityTax & Macroeconomics
post

Equitable Growth event highlights Boushey’s new book Unbound about how inequality obstructs, subverts, and distorts economic growth

Inequality & Mobility
post

Testimony by Heather Boushey before the House Budget Committee

CompetitionFamiliesInequality & Mobility
post

Economic inequality matters for Federal Reserve monetary policymaking

Inequality & MobilityTax & Macroeconomics
Disaggregating Growth

Newly released U.S. poverty statistics show that recent economic growth is not broadly shared

FamiliesInequality & Mobility

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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