Sociology Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2804
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Item The Spatial Configuration of American Inequality: Wealth and Income Concentration through US History(2014) Albrecht, Scott; Korzeniewicz, Roberto Patricio; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Drawing on a variety of data sources--national surveys and censuses, probate and tax records, wage series and rich lists--I identify five period or regimes in US history with distinct wealth and income distributions. I argue that this periodization of inequality in the United States is a product of Arrighi's systemic cycles of accumulation. Each cycle of accumulation is associated with a spatial configuration, a global pattern of interdependent technologies, infrastructure, institutions, networks and social relations, and ideologies, that structures the distribution and flow of wealth. Interdependence in the components of the spatial configuration means that there are periods of relative stability delineated by moments of cascading change when space is reconfigured; new patterns of wealth and income concentration emerge as a result. The principal contribution of this approach is to further our understanding of the impact of global processes on within-country wealth and income concentration; we cannot isolate domestic market institutions and technological change from global political and economic competition.Item The Effect of Age Structure on US Income Inequality, 1976 to 2007(2008) Albrecht, Scott; Iceland, John; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This paper examines the relationship between age structure and income inequality. As a cohort ages, incomes become more unequally distributed within it. Consequently, as the age structure of a population evolves, it may have real effects on the aggregate distribution of incomes in that population. Using March CPS data from 1976 to 2007, I decompose inequality change by age and education. Changes in the age structure have had a net negative impact on inequality since 1976. The aging of the large baby boom cohort has been offset by the aging of the relatively small birth dearth cohort and by trends in mean income by age. I also find some evidence that inequality patterns by education are influenced by the age structure of education groups.