Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-14-2012
Abstract
This study examines how the degree of progressivity of the U.S. Federal income tax evolved between 1929 and 2009. Data from the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Census Bureau, and Bureau of Economic Analysis is used to construct annual tax concentration curves and income concentration curves. Numerical values of four tax progressivity indices are determined. These values suggests that: (i) the degree of progressivity has varied greatly over time, (ii) taxation outcomes have become more progressive over the past four decades, (iii) the period from the early 1950s through 1974 was one of relatively low progressivity, whereas the period from 1975 through 2009 was one of relatively high progressivity, (iv) the most progressive outcomes of the last 67 years have been realized within the past decade, and (v) recent outcomes are much less progressive than were outcomes before 1942.
Comments
NOTICE: this is the author’s pre-print version of a work that was accepted for publication in The Social Science Journal. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in The Social Science Journal, [VOL#51, ISSUE#1, (March 2014)] DOI# http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2013.10.011
© 2014. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/