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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Public Investment, Manufacturing Work Opportunity, and Upward Mobility in Midcentury America: Evidence from World War II

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The Effect of Government Safety Enforcement on Workers: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data

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Who Weathers the Storm? The Unequal Effects of Hurricanes in the United States

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Finding Work with Carceral Credentials: Peril and Paradox

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Which Policies are Effective at Reducing Racial Differences in the Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty?

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Walmart Supercenters and Monopsony Power: How a Large, Low-Wage Employer Impacts Local Labor Markets

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Unequal Protections: Regional Disparities in Labor Standards Policies, Enforcement, and Violations

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Green Jobs or Lost Jobs? The Distributional Implications for US Workers in a Low Carbon Economy

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Income support programs boost earnings for low-wage workers by reducing household poverty in the United States

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Bring the Households Back In: The Effect of Poverty on the Mobility of Low-Wage Workers to Better Wages

Inequality & MobilityLabor
Expert Focus

Expert Focus: Bridging the gap between policymakers and academics at our biennial policy conference

Inequality & Mobility
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American Sociological Association 2021 conference centered on inequality and structural racism in the U.S. economy and society

Inequality & MobilityFamilies

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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