Rebecca M. Blank offers the first comprehensive analysis of an economic trend that has been reshaping the United States over the past three decades: rapidly rising income inequality. In clear language, she provides an overview of how and why the level and distribution of income and wealth has changed since 1979, sets this situation within its historical context, and investigates the forces that are driving it. Among other factors, Blank looks closely at changes within families, including women’s increasing participation in the work force. The book includes some surprising findings—for example, that per-person income has risen sharply among almost all social groups, even as income has become more unequally distributed. Looking toward the future, Blank suggests that while rising inequality will likely be with us for many decades to come, it is not an inevitable outcome. Her book considers what can be done to address this trend, and also explores the question: why should we be concerned about this phenomenon?
Rebecca M. Blank is former Robert Kerr Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Dean of the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Most recently, she coedited Insufficient Funds: Savings, Asset, Credit and Banking Among Low-Income Households and Working and Poor: How Economic and Policy Changes are Affecting Low-Wage Workers. She is also the author of It Takes a Nation: A New Agenda for Fighting Poverty, among other books.
“Changing Inequality is a must read book for all serious social scientists. The answers offered in this book, by one of the top social scientists in the country, will surprise you and lead you to rethink your beliefs in the efficacy of public policy in reducing inequality.” —Timothy M. Smeeding, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“Rebecca Blank has written the authoritative guide to the basic data describing U.S. income inequality. Her analysis of the trends that drive inequality – changes in the wage structure, work behavior and family structure – will be economic researchers’ go-to source for many years to come.” —Frank Levy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
240 pp.5.5 x 8.25Illus: 34 line illustrations, 13 tables
9780520266933$29.95|£25.00Paper
Jul 2011