This morning the Census Bureau released its annual report on income — including median income, inequality, and income poverty — and health insurance coverage in the previous year.  As expected given continued high unemployment, the report shows a substantial deterioration in Americans’ economic security between 2009 and 2010, including substantial income losses for middle- and […]

On December 6, the President said “there is no reason that ordinary Americans should see their taxes go up next year.”  Apparently, the Administration staff who negotiated the deal found a reason.  According to the estimates of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, some 51 million taxpayers overall will see part of the tax cuts they […]

Introduction and Summary: In “The Role of Prices in Measuring the Poor’s Living Standards,” Christian Broda, Ephriam Leibtag, and David E. Weinstein (2009) use proprietary data — the 2005 Nielsen Homescan dataset — to analyze differences by income level in the prices paid for food.  They find that Nielsen households with incomes above $60,000 pay […]

Today the Census Bureau released a report on trends in income, including median income, income inequality and income poverty, and health insurance coverage between 2008 and 2009.  As expected given the increase in unemployment — which grew from 7.4 percent in December 2008 to 10 percent in December 2009 — the report shows a substantial […]