Profile picture
, 4 tweets, 2 min read
My Authors
Read all threads
My paper with @PhilWMagness on income inequality 1917-1945 in Economic Inquiry has now been assigned an issue. In that paper, we show that (on average) the IRS data for the US overstates income inequality by a factor of 1.18. #econtwitter #econhist

doi.org/10.1111/ecin.1…
We explain that weak enforcement and highly volatile tax rates reduce the economic quality of the tax data from the IRS used to measure inequality for the pre-1943 (pre-withholding). We compared with states that had strong enforcement (Delaware, Wisconsin) that had data.
We found this : lower levels of inequality throughout the period.
This reinforces the idea that while there is a U-curve of income inequality, the pattern is more muted. The evolution is softer than what is commonly depicted.
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh.

Enjoying this thread?

Keep Current with Vincent (Economic History) Geloso

Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Related hashtags

#econtwitter #econhist

More from @VincentGeloso see all

Profile picture
Vincent (Economic History) Geloso
@VincentGeloso
Esther Duflo and I have two dramatically different conceptions of the task of economics. Duflo wants to make the world a better place. I do not believe I have this ability. In fact, expert biases also exist and can be more detrimental to human welfare...1/n #econtwitter
Expert failures are incredibly damaging to human welfare and can occur because experts fail to see what subjectively matters to people on the ground (see Koppl - amazon.com/Failure-Cambri… and @bill_easterly
amazon.com/Tyranny-Expert…) 2/n
Moreover, I work with creating data every day (historical mostly) and creating definitional consistency while also determining range of confidence in numbers. Just in the measurement (and standardization of income), there are wide uncertainties.
Read 5 tweets
Profile picture
Vincent (Economic History) Geloso
@VincentGeloso
New paper forthcoming in Cliometrica with Peter Lindert. In the paper we show that between 1800-1914, inequality in cost of living fell offsetting sizable share of increase in nominal income inequality ssrn.com/abstract=33607… #econhist #econtwitter
This is important because rising wages meant rising costs of services which featured heavily in baskets of the rich. There is thus a leveling of "cost of living". #econhist #econwitter
Once adjustments are made to measure "real" income inequality rather than nominal income inequality, the increase in the "gilded age" was minimized and maybe did not occur (we are not certain on which of the two) #econhist #econtwitter
Read 7 tweets
Profile picture
Vincent (Economic History) Geloso
@VincentGeloso
Economic Inquiry has just accepted my article with @PhilWMagness on income inequality in the United States before the 1940s. We show that the IRS data is of very poor quality and overstates the actual level of inequality #econhist #econtwitter

LINK: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
We point out that the IRS income data relied on self-reporting in an era of rapidly changing rates and (at high levels) with lax enforcement. This makes the errors of estimation unstable and the levels inaccurate.
So we used state-level income tax systems that were differently enforced than the IRS (Wisconsin, Delaware, North Carolina, Utah and Minnesota with the 1st two being the most important) to compare IRS-level estimates of inequality.
Read 12 tweets

Related threads

Profile picture
Xinqi Su 蘇昕琪
@XinqiSu
#NOW #CarrieLam and 8 senior officials are meeting press with mask on, including security minister John Lee.
#CarrieLam: I regret the huge amount of rumours circulating online which will severely obstruct to our control of the epidemic and generate unnecessary panic among the public.
She raised an example of accusing her of promising to use HK's medical system to serve mainland's needs
#BREAKING #CarrieLam: halt issuance of individual travel visas to HK in 49 mainland cities
Read 18 tweets
Profile picture
Xinqi Su 蘇昕琪
@XinqiSu
#NOW outside TST pier and Harbour City, citizens and tourists are enjoying a colourful and festive Christmas Eve while a small group of riot police are guarding the Star Ferry’s exit
#CarrieLam just published a video on her FB page, wishing people a peaceful, safe and merry Christmas.
Riot police patrolling Canton Road in TST.
Read 49 tweets
Profile picture
Xinqi Su
@XinqiSu
#NOW in Tsim Sha Tsui , people are forming human chain that is set to extend along Nathan Road towards Jordan
Hold hands with @pepe , the spirit animal of #HongKongProtests , is the theme of tonight's human chain from Tsim Sha Tsui to Prince Edward Station.
Pepe in human chain : one with a broken but still illuminating heart, black bloc pepe, big pepe, hand drawn pepe.
Read 8 tweets
Profile picture
Zarina Zabrisky
@ZarinaZabrisky
#IRS Ahem, in 2016, NYT: "Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a tax deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years." nytimes.com/2016/10/02/us/…
Here they all are, published ONE MONTH BEFORE THE ELECTIONS, oh dear shocked and stunned. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
and, In November 1996, Howard Lorber and Ben LeBow brought Trump to Moscow & to discuss a joint venture between their tobacco factory, Trump Organization & the city of Moscow with the Moscow authorities known for his corrupt practices. medium.com/@ZarinaZabrisk…
Read 5 tweets
Profile picture
Simon Wardley #EEA
@swardley
I agree with the sentiment but I cannot emphasise enough that #homelessness, #foodbanks, #ChildPoverty, #HostileEnvironment all existed before #brexit. They are not a consequence of #brexit but #Conservatives policy. It doesn't have to be this way, it's a political choice ->
Before someone from #FBPE jumps in and says "that's because focus has been on brexit" ... not it isn't. This is #Conservative policy. The privatisation of #NHS, the changes in #Education, reductions in #LegalAid ... where has the #EU been in stopping all this? It hasn't.
There has been a constant drive to reform society from health to education, none of which is about addressing the issues of inequality.

Labour demands inquiry into how GCSE reform has benefited private schools - theguardian.com/education/2018…
Read 5 tweets
Profile picture
Heather Boushey
@HBoushey
In light of the new @iteptweets report (if you haven’t already, read it here itep.org/federal-tax-cu…), a thread on rising inequality & how effective tax policy can address it 1/15
As @PikettyLeMonde, @gabriel_zucman & @berkeley_olab’s Emmanuel Saez have shown, the bottom half of the income distribution has been completely shut off from economic gains since the 1970s
equitablegrowth.org/economic-growt… 2/15
They find that from 1980-2014, incomes grew:
121% for the top 10%
205% for the top 1%
636% for the top .001%

and a whopping 1% for the bottom 50% gabriel-zucman.eu/files/PSZ2018Q… 3/15
Read 16 tweets

Trending hashtags

#durability #Conservative #France #PolyUniversity #standby #hours #Data #insurgent #altc19 #archived #data #customer #BANKS #Obama #A2J #Education #oecd #worktodo #lawyers #GoingDigital #memory #neoliberal #policy #NOW #CASH
Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!