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Data Disaggregation

This is a library of resources for household data disaggregation.

Methodological papers on constructing income distribution datasets

  1. Latest BEA methodological summary on developing income distributions:
    Fixler, D.F., Johnson, D.S., Craig A, and Furlong, K.J. (2017). "Toward National and Regional Distributions of Personal Income", Survey of Current Business March 2017:1-10.
  2. Detailed explanation of latest BEA methodology described in (1):
    Fixler, D., Johnson, D., Craig A. and Furlong, K. (2017). "A Consistent Data Series to Evaluate Growth and Inequality in National Accounts" The Review of Income and Wealth Vol. 63, Issue s2, S437-S459.
  3. Main (and recent) alternative approach to statistical agencies work; it relies on tax data for better estimates of top tails; it finds that top tails of distribution have experienced much more rapid income growth in last 35 years:
    Piketty, T., Saez, E. and Zucman, G. (2017). "Distributional National Accounts: methods and Estimates for the United States", The Quaterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 133, Issue 2:553-609.
    Data and code are available here. Supplementary information is available here.

Methodological papers on dataset construction and CGE application

  1. Summary of recent literature on carbon taxation and household distribution effects at the end of the paper; description of Diamond-Zodrow OLG model (12 income groups):
    Diamond, J.W. and G.R. Zodrow (2018). The Effects of Carbon Tax Policies on the US Economy and the Welfare of Households. An independent report prepared by the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University for Columbia SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy.
  2. IGEM-N household description: breaks-out 244 households using the Consumer Expenditure Survey across the following categories: income, number of children, number of adults, regions, location, race and gender of head: Jorgenson, D.W., Goettle, R.J., Ho, M.S. and P.J. Wilcoxen (2018). "The Welfare Consequences of Taxing Carbon", Climate Change Economics, Vol. 9, No.1, 1840013-1 - 1840013-39.
  3. This paper uses Treasury's Distribution Model; focus on energy consumption:
    Cronin, J.A., Fullerton, D. and S.E. Sexton (2017). "Vertical and horizontal redistributions from a carbon tax and rebate", National Bureau of Economic Research, Nber Working Paper Series, Working Paper 23250.
  4. This paper introduces the of concepts of Vertical Equity (variation across income groups) and Horizontal Equity (variation within an income group):
    Pizer, W.A. and S. Sexton (2017)."Distributional Impacts of Energy Taxes", National Bureau of Economic Research, Nber Working Paper Series, Working Paper 23318.
  5. This paper uses a CGE model in conjunction with a disaggregated household model; it is the only paper to use Survey of Consumer Finances data; it emphasizes the importance of capturing transfer payments:
    Goulder, L.H., Hafstead. M.A.C., Kim, G. and X. Long (2018). "Impacts of a Carbon Tax across US Household Income Groups: What Are the Equity Efficiency Trade-Offs?", Resources for the Future (RFF), Working paper 18-22.
  6. OLG/income-incidence paper:
    Williams III, R.C., Gordon, H., Burtraw, D., Carbone, J.C. and R.D. Morgenstern (2015). "The initial incidence of a carbon tax across income groups", National Tax Journal, 68(1), 195-214.

Notes

  • Degree and forms of household disaggregation: income, consumption, age, urban/rural, gender, race, size of household.
  • Consistency with NIPA: "Personal income, as computed by BEA, is different from the IRS computed Adjusted Gross Income and different from the Census money income." (Johnson et al.)
  • There is a pretty large discrepancy between average annual incomes from surveys and those reported by the BEA through their personal consumption expenditure numbers. For details, see here.

Data sources used in the literature

  1. Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX or CE) - several papers
  2. Current Population Survey (CPS) - several papers by BEA
  3. IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) - papers by BEA and Piketty et al. (2017)
  4. Fed/treasury wealth distribution model (TDM) - single paper: Cronin et al. (2017)
  5. Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) - single paper: Goulder et al. (2018)
  6. Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) - single presentation from 2014, see below Spletzer (FESAC, 2014)

Other data sources

  1. Job-to-Job flows data from the US Census Bureau: here.
  2. Urban/rural: metro level GDP data from the BEA that could be leveraged to separate incomes of rural-urban households from the state level data: here.

Additional Resources

  1. Papers and presentations on inequality statistics and reconciling data from different surveys to the national accounts:
    Session on Income and Wage Inequality Statistics at the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee (FESAC) (US Census Bureau, June 2014).
    Noteworthy presentations:
    1. Laurie Salmon on Occupational Employment Statistics.
    2. Kevin Furlong on Distributional Estimates in the U.S. National Accounts. Interesting comparison charts of personal vs. household income over time (p.5-6), BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey and NIPA Personal Consumption Expenditures over time (p.8-9), itemized categories of what is included in each dataset (p.10-11) and income and expenditures by quintile (p. 18-20).
    3. James R. Spletzer on Inequality Statistics from the LEHD (Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics).