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Abstract
This paper examines inequality and mobility using measures of income and consumption. Consumption is claimed to be a better measure of permanent income and thus well-being, but most studies of inequality and mobility using U.S. data use income.This paper uses cohort data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys on total consumption to impute consumption in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Then, we use this imputed consumption and actual income from the PSID to examine changes in inequality and mobility. Similar to earlier findings, we show that there has been a large increase in income inequality but no concurrent increase in consumption inequality in the 1990s. Conversely, income mobility and consumption mobility are similar during this time period.Finally, we link the concepts of inequality and mobility using a social welfare function. The results suggest that income mobility and consumption mobility more than offset the increases in inequality.

Equivalence sales are used to adjust income by family size to obtain income distribution measures. Recently, the concept of equivalence scale elasticity has been introduced to characterize the effect that scales have on distribution measures. We produce utility-based equivalence scales that have the property of constant elasticity. By assuming a particular functional form for the scales and that the scales are independent of the base level of utility, we obtain unique equivalence scales. In contrast to previous estimates of utility-based scales, we do not restrict our sample to particular family types. We determine price-dependant scales by estimating a characteristic-dependent almost ideal demand system using quarterly expenditure data from the US Consumer Expenditure Survey and price indices from the US Consumer Price Index. We use our scales and those implicit in the US official poverty thresholds to adjust expenditures and show that these scales have similar effects on inequality measures.

Since Alan Krueger's christening of the Great Gatsby curve, there has been increased attention given to the relationship between inequality and intergenerational social mobility in the United States. Studying intergenerational mobility (IGM) requires longitudinal data across large spans of time as well as the ability to follow parents and children over multiple generations. Few longitudinal datasets meet this need. This article surveys available data and the current and potential issues surrounding the use of administrative records to vastly extend the study of IGM. First, we describe the U.S. Census Bureau's current uses of administrative records in the linkage of households across household surveys such as the Current Population Survey (CPS), American Community Survey (ACS), Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), and the decennial censuses. Then, we describe the possibilities of creating additional parent-child linkages using the SIPP linked to decennial censuses and the ACS. Last, we outline our model to create linkages across earlier census data (e.g., 1980 and 1990) and contemporary surveys. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]

Since Alan Krueger's christening of the Great Gatsby curve, there has been increased attention given to the relationship between inequality and intergenerational social mobility in the United States. Studying intergenerational mobility (IGM) requires longitudinal data across large spans of time as well as the ability to follow parents and children over multiple generations. Few longitudinal datasets meet this need. This article surveys available data and the current and potential issues surrounding the use of administrative records to vastly extend the study of IGM. First, we describe the U.S. Census Bureau's current uses of administrative records in the linkage of households across household surveys such as the Current Population Survey (CPS), American Community Survey (ACS), Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), and the decennial censuses. Then, we describe the possibilities of creating additional parent-child linkages using the SIPP linked to decennial censuses and the ACS. Last, we outline our model to create linkages across earlier census data (e.g., 1980 and 1990) and contemporary surveys.

Using questions expressly added to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, we estimate the change in consumption expenditures caused by the 2001 federal income tax rebates and test the permanent income hypothesis. We exploit the unique, randomized timing of rebate receipt across households. Households spent 20 to 40 percent of their rebates on nondurable goods during the three-month period in which their rebates arrived, and roughly two-thirds of their rebates cumulatively during this period and the subsequent three-month period. The implied effects on aggregate consumption demand are substantial. Consistent with liquidity constraints, responses are larger for households with low liquid wealth or low income.

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is the world's longest running household panel survey. Since it began in 1968, it has collected data on the same families and their descendants, making it an essential part of America's data infrastructure for empirically based social science research. The PSID arose from the War on Poverty as a tool for evaluating poverty dynamics, and this year (2018) marks 50 years of data collection. Because of its long history and distinctive design of following adult children as they form their own households, the PSID is uniquely positioned to address emerging social and behavioral research questions and related policy issues. This overview presents the design and structural aspects and its evolution over the past 50 years, the successes of the current survey, possible future directions, and the value of using the PSID to understand the challenges facing American families.