The Rise of the Super-Rich: Power Resources, Taxes, Financial Markets, and the Dynamics of the Top 1 Percent, 1949 to 2008

The income share of the super-rich in the United States has grown rapidly since the early 1980s after a period of postwar stability. What factors drove this change? In this study, we investigate the institutional, policy, and economic shifts that may explain rising income concentration. We use singl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American sociological review 2012-10, Vol.77 (5), p.679-699
Main Authors: Volscho, Thomas W., Kelly, Nathan J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capital gains
Class
Classes, stratification, mobility
Economic Factors
Economic models
Economic Policy
Economic resources
Economic sociology
Egalitarianism
Energy resources
Error Correction
Errors
Finance
Income
Income distribution
Income inequality
Income shares
Income taxes
Inequality
Labor
Labor unions
Legislative Bodies
Legislatures
Liberalism
Markets
Neoliberalism
Political Attitudes
Political parties
Political partisanship
Political power
Politics
Power
Public policy
Real estate
Real Estate Industry
Regulation
Social Class
Social organization. Social system. Social structure
Sociology
Sociology of economy and development
Stability
Standard of living. Income
Stock exchanges
Studies
Tax rates
Taxation
Taxes
Trade
Trade unions
U.S.A
Union Members
Union membership
Unions
United States of America
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Summary:The income share of the super-rich in the United States has grown rapidly since the early 1980s after a period of postwar stability. What factors drove this change? In this study, we investigate the institutional, policy, and economic shifts that may explain rising income concentration. We use single-equation error correction models to estimate the long-and shortrun effects of politics, policy, and economic factors on pretax top income shares between 1949 and 2008. We find that the rise of the super-rich is the result of rightward-shifts in Congress, the decline of labor unions, lower tax rates on high incomes, increased trade openness, and asset bubbles in stock and real estate markets.
ISSN:0003-1224
1939-8271
DOI:10.1177/0003122412458508