NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH

The Level and Distribution of Economic Well-Being

Alan S. Blinder

NBER Working Paper No. 488 (Also Reprint No. r0154)*
Issued in March 1981
NBER Program(s):   EFG

This paper summarizes and critically evaluates what is known about postwar trends in both the level and distribution of economic well-being. Although certain non-income aspects of well-being are considered, the primary focus is on the level and inequality of income. Considerable attention is paid to recent controversies over the effects of transfers in kind and changing life-cycle income patterns on the overall trend in income inequality.

*Published: This paper was subsequently published as The Level and Distribution of Economic Well-Being, Alan S. Blinder, Irving Kristol, Wilbur J. Cohen, in NBER book The American Economy in Transition (1980)

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