IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joerap/v1y2018i2d10.1007_s41996-018-0016-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Great Recession and Income Inequality: a State-level Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Mehmet E. Yaya

    (Eastern Michigan University)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of the Great Recession on the income inequalities of racial and ethnic groups, namely whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians, in the USA. As the US economy fell into a deep recession during the late 2000s, the unemployment rate skyrocketed, the stock markets crashed, and incomes significantly declined. Using the American Community Survey from 2005 to 2016, this paper presents novel results that suggest the Great Recession not only increased the overall income inequality in the USA but also within- and between-group income inequalities among racial and ethnic groups. Furthermore, the impact of the recession on inequality is not uniform across these racial and ethnic groups. More specifically, during the Great Recession, inequality among blacks, Hispanics, and Asians has significantly increased, while whites experienced only a moderate increase in income inequality. The findings of this work are both timely and relevant, especially in terms of public policy. Policymakers cognizant of problems associated with within- and between-group inequalities might concentrate on policies alleviating the impact of the recession, especially those geared toward racial and ethnic minorities.

Suggested Citation

  • Mehmet E. Yaya, 2018. "Great Recession and Income Inequality: a State-level Analysis," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 112-125, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joerap:v:1:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s41996-018-0016-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s41996-018-0016-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41996-018-0016-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41996-018-0016-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Argento & Victoria L. Bryant & John Sabelhaus, 2015. "Early Withdrawals From Retirement Accounts During The Great Recession," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 33(1), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Lambert, Peter J & Aronson, J Richard, 1993. "Inequality Decomposition Analysis and the Gini Coefficient Revisited," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(420), pages 1221-1227, September.
    3. Gary Hoover & Mehmet Yaya, 2010. "Racial/Ethnic Differences in Income Inequality Across US Regions," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 37(2), pages 79-114, June.
    4. Tomas Hellebrandt, 2014. "Income Inequality Developments in the Great Recession," Policy Briefs PB14-3, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    5. Tomas Hellebrandt, 2014. "Income Inequality Developments in the Great Recession," LIS Working papers 604, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Mariña Fernández Salgado & Francesco Figari & Holly Sutherland & Alberto Tumino, 2014. "Welfare Compensation for Unemployment in the Great Recession," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(S1), pages 177-204, May.
    7. Thomas Hellebrandt, 2014. "Income Inequality Developments in the Great Recession," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 644, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    8. Thomas Masterson & Ajit Zacharias & Fernando Rios-Avila & Edward N. Wolff, 2019. "The Great Recession and Racial Inequality: Evidence from Measures of Economic Well-Being," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 1048-1069, October.
    9. Cherrie Bucknor, 2015. "Measuring Recovery: Young Black America Part Three: Employment, Unemployment, and the Incomplete Recovery," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2015-16, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Marina Gindelsky, 2022. "Do transfers lower inequality between households? Demographic evidence from Distributional National Accounts," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(3), pages 1233-1257, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Smit, Tycho A.B. & Hu, Jing & Harmsen, Robert, 2014. "Unravelling projected energy savings in 2020 of EU Member States using decomposition analyses," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 271-285.
    2. Timm Bönke & Carsten Schröder, 2014. "European-Wide Inequality in Times of the Financial Crisis," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 23(3), pages 7-34, November.
    3. Ilaria Petrarca & Roberto Ricciuti, 2015. "Relative income distribution in six European countries: market and disposable income," LIS Working papers 629, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    4. Vanda Almeida, 2020. "Income Inequality and Redistribution in the Aftermath of the 2007-2008 Crisis: The U.S. Case," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 73(1), pages 77-114, March.
    5. Stéphane Mussard & Kuan Xu, 2006. "Multidimensional Decomposition of the Sen Index: Some Further Thoughts," Cahiers de recherche 06-08, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    6. Holly Sutherland & Francesco Figari, 2013. "EUROMOD: the European Union tax-benefit microsimulation model," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 1(6), pages 4-26.
    7. Onrubia Fernández, Jorge & Picos, Fidel & Rodado, María del Carmen, 2019. "Shifting tax burden to top income earners: What is the best way to reduce inequality?," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 13, pages 1-31.
    8. Guido Erreygers & Roselinde Kessels & Linkun Chen & Philip Clarke, 2016. "Decomposing Socioeconomic Inequality of Health," EcoMod2016 9574, EcoMod.
    9. Modalsli, Jørgen, 2011. "Inequality and growth in the very long run: inferring inequality from data on social groups," Memorandum 11/2011, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    10. Chen, Shaohua & Ravallion, Martin, 2021. "Reconciling the conflicting narratives on poverty in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    11. Hai Zhong, 2010. "The impact of missing data in the estimation of concentration index: a potential source of bias," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 11(3), pages 255-266, June.
    12. Liu, Haiyue & Zhang, Ruchuan & Zhou, Li & Li, Aijun, 2023. "Evaluating the financial performance of companies from the perspective of fund procurement and application: New strategy cross efficiency network data envelopment analysis models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    13. Georg Kanitsar, 2022. "The Inequality-Trust Nexus Revisited: At What Level of Aggregation Does Income Inequality Matter for Social Trust?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 171-195, August.
    14. Casey J. Dawkins, 2004. "Measuring the Spatial Pattern of Residential Segregation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(4), pages 833-851, April.
    15. J. Richard Aronson & Peter J. Lambert & Donald R. Trippeer, 1999. "Estimates of the Changing Equity Characteristics of the U.S. Income Tax with International Conjectures," Public Finance Review, , vol. 27(2), pages 138-159, March.
    16. Dawkins, Casey J., 2005. "Tiebout choice and residential segregation by race in US metropolitan areas, 1980-2000," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 734-755, November.
    17. Adam Wagstaff & Eddy van Doorslaer, 2004. "Overall versus socioeconomic health inequality: a measurement framework and two empirical illustrations," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(3), pages 297-301, March.
    18. Sorger, Gerhard & Stark, Oded, 2013. "Income redistribution going awry: The reversal power of the concern for relative deprivation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1-9.
    19. Ingvild Almås & Magne Mogstad, 2009. "Older or Wealthier? The Impact of Age Adjustments on the Wealth Inequality Ranking of Countries," Discussion Papers 583, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    20. Adam Wagstaff, 2005. "Inequality decomposition and geographic targeting with applications to China and Vietnam," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(6), pages 649-653, June.

    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:spr:joerap:v:1:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s41996-018-0016-6. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.