Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Cornell College economist outlines why U.S. inequality has widened since 1980
Summary
Dr. Todd, associate professor of economics at Cornell College, said income and wealth concentration rose sharply after 1980 and identified drivers including an ideas-based economy, winner-take-all markets, globalization, family structure changes and tax policy shifts.
Dr. Todd (associate professor of economics and business at Cornell College) told an Iowa City Foreign Relations Council audience that income and wealth have become much more concentrated in the United States since about 1980 and that multiple, interacting forces explain the shift.
“We see that beginning in the early nineties the top 1% earns more income than the bottom 50% of Americans,” Todd said, describing long-term trends in U.S. income shares and Gini coefficients. He emphasized that much of recent change occurs at the very top of the distribution, not evenly across the population.
Todd presented three linked empirical facts: income inequality has risen since 1980, wealth…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
