<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5113"> This national income data is not family or household (or even worker per se). The authors attempt to assign national income (basically, GDP), to all individual adults, over 230 million, including government spending, transfers (social security), healthcare benefits, etc. The 57 page paper can be accessed online; the final 20 pages or so are charts that summarize the data.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5112"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5096" dir="ltr">ABSTRACT<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5058">This paper combines tax, survey, and national accounts data to estimate the distribution of<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5059">national income in the United States since 1913. Our distributional national accounts capture<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5060">100% of national income, allowing us to compute growth rates for each quantile of the income<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5061">distribution consistent with macroeconomic growth. We estimate the distribution of both pre-tax<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5062">and post-tax income, making it possible to provide a comprehensive view of how government<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5063">redistribution affects inequality. Average pre-tax national income per adult has increased 60%<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5064">since 1980, but we find that it has stagnated for the bottom 50% of the distribution at about<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5065">$16,000 a year. The pre-tax income of the middle class—adults between the median and the 90th<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5066">percentile—has grown 40% since 1980, faster than what tax and survey data suggest, due in<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5067">particular to the rise of tax-exempt fringe benefits. Income has boomed at the top: in 1980, top<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5068">1% adults earned on average 27 times more than bottom 50% adults, while they earn 81 times<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5069">more today. <b id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5189">The upsurge of top incomes was first a labor income phenomenon but has mostly<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5070">been a capital income phenomenon since 2000.</b> The government has offset only a small fraction<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5071">of the increase in inequality. The reduction of the gender gap in earnings has mitigated the<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5072">increase in inequality among adults. The share of women, however, falls steeply as one moves up<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5073">the labor income distribution, and is only 11% in the top 0.1% today.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5106" dir="ltr"><br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5074">Thomas Piketty<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5075">Paris School of Economics<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5076">48 Boulevard Jourdan<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5077">75014 Paris, France<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5078">piketty@ens.fr<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5079">Emmanuel Saez<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5080">Department of Economics<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5081">University of California, Berkeley<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5082">530 Evans Hall #3880<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5083">Berkeley, CA 94720<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5084">and NBER<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5085">saez@econ.berkeley.edu<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5086">Gabriel Zucman<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5087">Department of Economics<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5088">University of California, Berkeley<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5089">530 Evans Hall, #3880<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5090">Berkeley, CA 94720<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5091">and NBER<br id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1483732283824_5092">zucman@berkeley.edu</div></div></body></html>