IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v82y1988i02p467-490_08.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income Distribution in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Hibbs, Douglas A.
  • Dennis, Christopher

Abstract

Political action has affected postwar income distribution in the United States mainly through policy-induced variations in macroeconomic activity and government transfer benefits in proportion to total income. We present a small dynamic model of the connections among the partisan balance of power, macroeconomic fluctuations, transfer spending trends, and income distribution outcomes. The model is based on the premise that the parties have different distributional goals, and it is designed to identify how shifts in party control of the presidency and the strength of the parties in Congress have affected the distribution of after-tax, after-transfer income by influencing cyclical economic performance and the flow of resources to transfer programs. We therefore extend the “partisan theory” of macroeconomic policy to the domain of income distribution outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Hibbs, Douglas A. & Dennis, Christopher, 1988. "Income Distribution in the United States," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(2), pages 467-490, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:82:y:1988:i:02:p:467-490_08
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055400085129/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mueller, Dennis C. & Stratmann, Thomas, 2003. "The economic effects of democratic participation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 2129-2155, September.
    2. Kannan, Viji Diane & Brown, Theodore M. & Kunitz, Stephen J. & Chapman, Benjamin P., 2019. "Political parties and mortality: The role of social status and personal responsibility," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 1-7.
    3. Hibbs, Douglas A, Jr, 2000. "Bread and Peace Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 104(1-2), pages 149-180, July.
    4. Scheuerle, Andreas J., 1996. "Rationale Klienteltheorie und Parteienkooperation," Tübinger Diskussionsbeiträge 61, University of Tübingen, School of Business and Economics.
    5. Marco E. Terrones, 1991. "Macroeconomic policy and elections: Theories and challenges," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 6(2), pages 173-195.
    6. Troeger, Vera, 2012. "De Facto Capital Mobility, Equality, and Tax Policy in Open Economies," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 84, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    7. Kenneth Scheve, 2003. "Public demand for low inflation," Bank of England working papers 172, Bank of England.
    8. Lane Kenworthy, 2010. "How Much Do Presidents Influence Income Inequality?," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(2), pages 90-112.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:82:y:1988:i:02:p:467-490_08. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.