Income Distribution Commons^™

Partisan Conflict And Income Inequality In The United States: A Nonparametric Causality-In-Quantiles Approach, Mehmet Balcilar, Seyi Saint Akadiri, Rangan Gupta, Stephen M. Miller

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper examines the predictive power of a partisan conflict on income inequality. Our study contributes to the existing literature by using the newly introduced nonparametric causality-in-quantile testing approach to examine how political polarization in the United States affects several measures of income inequality and distribution overtime. The study uses annual time-series data between the periods 1917–2013. We find evidence in support of a dynamic causal relationship between partisan conflict and income inequality, except at the upper end of the quantiles. Our empirical findings suggest that a reduction in partisan conflict will lead to a reduction in our measures of …