Effect of Government on the Distribution of Income: Evaluations and Explanations

Abstract

This study is concerned with analyzing the role of government in the distribution of aggregate income in the United States from 1947 to the present. The objectives are twofold: (1) to test the effect of social welfare expenditures, taxation and tax expenditures, and inflation and anti-inflation policies in effecting a change in the overall distribution of income; and (2) to develop a theoretical model which explains the static distribution of income that has prevailed in the United States for three decades.