Scholars have increasingly drawn attention to rising levels of income inequality in the United States. However, prior studies have provided an incomplete account of how changes to specific transfer programs have contributed to changes in income growth across the distribution. Our study decomposes the direct effects of tax and transfer programs on changes in the household income distribution from 1967 to 2015. We show that despite a rising Gini coefficient, lower-tail inequality (the ratio of the 50th to 10th percentile) declined in the United States during this period due to the rise of in-kind and tax-based transfers. Food assistance and refundable tax credits account for nearly all the income growth between 1967 and 2015 at the 5th percentile and roughly one-half the growth at the 10th percentile. Moreover, income gains near the bottom of the distribution are concentrated among households with children. Changes in the income distribution were far less progressive among households without children.

中文翻译：

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税收和转移对美国收入分配变化的直接影响，1967-2015。

学者们越来越关注美国日益严重的收入不平等。然而，先前的研究并未完整说明特定转移支付计划的变化如何导致整个分配中收入增长的变化。我们的研究分解了税收和转移支付计划对 1967 年至 2015 年家庭收入分配变化的直接影响。我们表明，尽管基尼系数上升，但下尾不平等（第 50 和第 10 个百分位数的比率）有所下降由于实物和基于税收的转移的兴起，在此期间在美国。粮食援助和可退还税收抵免几乎占 1967 年至 2015 年第 5 个百分点的所有收入增长，约占第 10 个百分点的收入增长的一半。此外，接近分配底部的收入增长集中在有孩子的家庭中。在没有孩子的家庭中，收入分配的变化远没有那么进步。