Abstract
 Regional Income Inequality in the United States, 1918-2003 Track: GIScience Author(s): Estelle Sommeiller Conceived of in many ways, the topic of income inequality has ignited passionate debates in the academic literature. In economics, the well-known Kuznets' hypothesis, based on neoclassical foundations, predicts the convergence of income levels as more and more industries reach higher productivity levels. This paper will consider both geographical and historical aspects of economic inequalities within the United States. As the U.S. Internal Revenue Service publishes state income data by income brackets since 1917, it is possible to compute statistical indicators of dispersion (like the upper decile of the distribution and its inner fractiles). After getting a data set that is homogeneous enough to rigorously compare the years 1918 and 2003, generating a series of ArcGIS animations accounting for the new time series will provide a visual illustration of the convergence (or divergence) pace of regional U.S. inequalities over the past century. I cannot wait to see this! Estelle Sommeiller University of Delaware Economics 307 Delaware Circle Newark , DE 19711 US Phone: 302-738-7344 Fax: 302-831-6968 E-mail: estelle@udel.edu |
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