Regulation and Income Inequality in the United States

38 Pages Posted: 29 Jun 2020

See all articles by Dustin Chambers

Dustin Chambers

Salisbury University - Department of Economics and Finance; George Mason University - Mercatus Center

Colin O'Reilly

Creighton University

Date Written: May 2020

Abstract

Income inequality in the United States has risen over the past several decades. Over the same period, federal regulatory restrictions have increased. An emerging literature shows that regulations can have regressive effects on the distribution of income, exacerbating inequality. The Federal Regulation and State Enterprise (FRASE) index quantifies the regulatory restrictions that apply to each US state by industrial composition. We construct a panel of 50 US states from 1997 to 2015 to test whether states exposed to more federal regulatory restrictions have higher levels of income inequality. The results indicate that a 10 percent increase in federal regulation is associated with an approximate 0.5 percent increase in income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient. When states are rank-ordered by average Gini coefficient, a 0.5 percent increase in income inequality will typically result in a two-position decline in state ranking.

Keywords: regulation, income inequality, FRASE, regressive effects, Gini coefficient, income distribution, economic policy, regulatory policy, federal government

JEL Classification: D31, D63, L51

Suggested Citation

Chambers, Dustin and O'Reilly, Colin, Regulation and Income Inequality in the United States (May 2020). Mercatus Working Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3636126 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3636126

Dustin Chambers (Contact Author)

Salisbury University - Department of Economics and Finance ( email )

Salisbury, MD 21801
United States

George Mason University - Mercatus Center

3434 Washington Blvd., 4th Floor
Arlington, VA 22201
United States

Colin O'Reilly

Creighton University ( email )

2500 California St.
Omaha, NE 68178
United States

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