Data and Code for: "Trends in U.S. Spatial Inequality: Concentrating Affluence and a Democratization of Poverty"

We study trends in income inequality across U.S. states and counties 1960-2019 using a mix of administrative and survey data sources. Both states and counties have diverged in terms of per-capita pre-tax incomes since the late 1990s, with transfers serving to dampen this divergence. County incomes have been diverging since the late 1970s. These trends in mean income mask opposing patterns among top and bottom income quantiles. Top incomes have diverged markedly across states since the late 1970s. In contrast, bottom income quantiles and poverty rates have converged across areas in recent decades.

本研究采用行政数据与调查数据相结合的数据源，对1960年至2019年美国各州及各郡县的收入不平等趋势展开分析。自20世纪90年代末以来，各州与各郡县的人均税前收入均出现分化，政府转移支付对这一分化态势起到了抑制作用。郡县层面的收入自20世纪70年代末起便已呈现分化格局。人均收入均值的整体趋势，掩盖了收入最高与最低分位数群体间的反向变动模式：自20世纪70年代末以来，美国各州的高收入群体收入显著分化；与之形成鲜明对比的是，近几十年来全美各区域的低收入分位数群体收入与贫困率均呈现趋同态势。