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INCOME DISTRIBUTION ISSUES VIEWED IN A LIFETIME INCOME PERSPECTIVE *
Author(s) -
Moss Milton
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4991.1978.tb00035.x
Subject(s) - economics , perspective (graphical) , income distribution , social security , equity (law) , economic inequality , demographic economics , life course approach , dimension (graph theory) , cohort , distribution (mathematics) , intergenerational equity , public economics , inequality , econometrics , psychology , political science , statistics , computer science , mathematics , social psychology , artificial intelligence , pure mathematics , law , market economy , ecology , sustainability , biology , mathematical analysis
In the June 1977 issue of the American Economic Review extraordinary attention was given to the statistical problem of measuring the effect on inequality in current income arising from differences associated with age. The method adopted by Paglin was severely criticized although everyone recognized the value of Paglin's unusual, if not original, emphasis on the importance of the underlying issue. This paper is not primarily concerned with the statistical problem of correcting data on current income distributions for income‐age differences. It is concerned mainly with the lifetime income perspective itself‐with ways of viewing the long‐term path of persons and of ways of viewing inequalities in that path as they develop within and among different generations. The paper discusses issues of measurement on a birth‐cohort or longitudinal basis, recent trends for selected cohorts, intra‐and inter‐cohort variances in lifetime income, and various policy issues, for example, the equity of the U.S. Social Security System viewed on a lifetime dimension.