University of Maryland
Sociology 441: Stratification 

Danziger & Gottschalk: America Unequal

danziger picture Sheldon Danziger and Peter Gottschalk , America Unequal. 1995. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press/ Russell Sage Foundation. See study questions

This book is written by two labor economists -- which is as close to sociology as economists dare to get. Still, it may seem a little heavy to you at first, but it is well worth the effort. They bring together most of the important ideas about how the American economy has changed in the last two decades. They summarize the national trends and evaluate most of the causal theories. All in a little over 200 (small) pages. So read it carefully, they pack alot in those 200 pages.

gottschalk picture

 

Chapter 1: The Diminishing American Dream

  1. In what two ways have family incomes changed since the 1970s? How is this different from income changes in the three decades after World War II?

    2.  
  2. What types of Americans have done best in the 1980s and 1990s? Is there any exception to the pattern?

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  3. What were the consequences of a growing Gross National Product (GNP) for Americans in the post-World War II era? in the 1980s and 1990s?

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  4. How have American's attitudes towards the economy changed in the last two decades? What is the evidence?

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  5. What has happened to poverty rates?

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  6. Why will policies stimulating economic growth not necessarily eliminate poverty?

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  7. What changes in the poors' behaviors have increased the poverty rate in the last two decades?

 

Chapter 3: Trends in the Level and Distribution of Income

  1. What has happened to median family incomes since World War II?

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  2. What are two problems with family incomes as a measure of how well off Americans are? How do adjustments for this change our conclusions about how Americans' well being changes in the 1970s and 1980s?

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  3. What are two measures of family income inequality? What do they show since 1947?

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  4. If we classify families according to the ratio of their incomes to the poverty line (e.g., below, 2X, 10X) which range of incomes grew the fastest between 1949 and 1969? Between 1973 and 1991?

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  5. How does the U.S. poverty rate compare with other industrialized countries?

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  6. What are three problems with the current poverty measure? What effects do these problems have on the rate of poverty? on changes in the poverty rate in the last two decades?

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  7. What are other problems with the official poverty rate?

 

Chapter 6: Changes in Labor Markets

This chapter describes, without explaining, the trends in earnings levels, inequality, and mobility. Before we can explain the changes (the next chapter), we have to know exactly what happened.
  1. How do time trends in median earnings differ between men and women? How do time trends in earnings inequality differ between men and women?

    2.  
  2. How has the income premium for a college degree changed in the last two decades? How has the income premium for years of work experience changed in the last two decades?

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  3. How has inequality changed among people with the same characteristics: e.g., men with college degrees and 10 years of job experience? What explains this inequality within people with the same characteristics?

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  4. How does the growth in earnings inequality in the U.S. compare with other industrialized countries?

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  5. How is the well-being of Americans affected by 1)economic growth, 2)economic inequality, and 3)economic mobility.

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  6. What has happened to earnings mobility in the last twenty years?

 

Chapter 7: Why Inequality of Earnings Increased

This chapter evaluates several explanations for the increased inequality of earnings. As the authors say, "theories abound". You need to make a list of these explanations to keep track of the argument. "You can't tell the ballplayers without a scorecard!" Don't expect definitive answers. This crucially important topic is still up for grabs. Just to make it more confusing, your authors' favorite explanation is not your professor's. What's yours? Why?
  1. How have trends in the minimum wage matched trends in men's earnings inequality? What is unusual about the level of the minimum wage since the 1970s? What is the weakness in the explanation based on minimum wage levels?

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  2. How do unions increase inequality? How do unions decrease inequality? What has happened to unionization in the last two decades? How much of the increasing inequality can be accounted for by changes in unionization?

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  3. How did changes in the tax laws affect earnings inequality?

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  4. How do changes in the cohort size of new entrants into the labor force (especially the entry of the "baby boomers") fit with changes in inequality?

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  5. How does immigration affect earnings? How much of the change in earnings inequality can be accounted for by immigration? What is the evidence that immigration is not a complete explanation of changes in earnings inequality?

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  6. What is the theory behind how welfare payments might affect inequality? What is the evidence ?

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  7. What is the usual relationship between business cycles and inequality? Why? How did changes in the 1980s rule out this explanation?

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  8. How would deindustrialization explain rising inequality? How do the time trend data fit with the theory? What is a problem with this explanation?

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  9. What is meant by the growing globalization of the American economy? How is globalization similar to and different from de-industrialization theories? How might globalization affect workers' earnings? How does this theory fit the time trend data?

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  10. Cite some specific technological changes that might affect earnings. What are the problems with evaluating this explanation?
     
  11. How has job security changed over time?

 

Chapter 4: Demographic Groups


  This chapter is not well organized -- or maybe it's not organized the way a sociologist would. Danziger and Gottschalk consider three types of disadvantaged groups in this chapter: racial/ethnic disadvantaged (African Americans and Hispanics), age (children and the elderly), and gender (women, especially households headed by women). For each group, they compare what happened in the 1950s and 1960s (between 1949 and 1969) with what happened in the late 1970s and the 1980s (between 1973 and 1981). They compare three types of changes: average (median) standard of living, the sources of that standard of living, and poverty rates. So we have three dimensions of stratification (race, gender, and age) across two time periods along three measures. We will look at all these changes, first looking at race then gender and finally age (although age not in as much detail as the other two and primarily as it helps us understand the role of welfare). Danziger and Gottschalk do not organize their chapter this way; they look first at median standards of living, reviewing differences by race, gender and age; then they look at sources of income, and again they review differences by race, gender, and age; finally they look at poverty again comparing differences by race, gender, and age. If you understand how their organization is different from ours, you will be able to extract from the reading the conclusions important for us. .in
  1. How have income and poverty trends diverged or converged during the last 20 years for different racial/ethnic groups, different ages, and different genders? During the 1950s and 1960s?

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  2. What is the major exception to the rule that groups at the bottom have seen their position worsen during the 1980s?

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  3. How do Danziger and Gottschalk measure "standards of living"?

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  4. How have families headed by women fared in the 1980s relative to families headed by men? in the 1950s and 1960s?

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  5. How have families headed by elderly fared in the 1980s relative to families headed by the non-elderly? in the 1950s and 1960s?

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  6. How have families headed by blacks fared in the 1980s relative to families headed by whites? in the 1950s and 1960s? Families headed by Hispanics?

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  7. How have children fared relative to the average American in the last 20 years? in the 1950s and 1960s?

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  8. How have the income sources of families headed by men changed since 1950?

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  9. How have the income sources of families headed by women changed since 1950?

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  10. How have the income sources of families headed by the elderly changed since 1950?

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  11. How have the earnings of minority young men changed since 1950? of white young men?

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  12. Why has poverty become worse for children in the 1980s but less common among the elderly?

 

Chapter 5: Why Poverty Remains High


  There have been two contending explanations for increases in poverty levels over the last two decades: changing family structure (e.g., more divorce and more childbearing by unmarried mothers) and the changing economic structure (stagnant earnings and increasing inequality).
  1. How has family structure changed since World War II? Why would this have an impact on poverty rates?

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  2. How has the racial/ethnic composition of the population changed since World War II? Why would this have an impact on poverty rates?

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  3. How do changes in mean incomes affect poverty rates? How do changes in the distribution of incomes around the mean affect poverty rates?

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  4. How do Danziger and Gottschalk estimate the importance of changes in family structure, racial ethnic composition, mean incomes, and income inequality? What is their conclusion about the 1950s and 1960s? about the 1970s and 1980s?

 

Chapter 2: Public Policies


  This chapter and chapter 8 were written before the the dismantling of much of the welfare program at the federal level. Some of it will seem quite dated, especially the hopefulness about public policy attempts to alleviate poverty. Regardless, we are interested in the general causal relationships: what are the consequences of welfare policies? and, a less directly addressed question: what are the causes of changes in welfare policies?
  1. What have been the ups and downs of government welfare efforts since the 1960s?

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  2. How has welfare policy co-varied with economic trends affecting the poor? That is, does welfare increase when times get bad and does it decline when times are good? or vice-versa? neither?

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  3. The 1960s "War on Poverty" was fought on several battlefields. What types of programs were developed to end poverty?

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  4. What were the 1960s expectations about the decline of poverty?

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  5. What factors led to a disenchantment with government efforts to alleviate poverty?

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  6. What public policies of the 1980s demonstrated that government efforts were shifting from the interests of the poor to the interests of the wealthy?

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  7. What was the trend in government social spending from the 1960s through the 1980s?

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  8. What programs in the late 1980s and early 1990s moved more in favor of those at the bottom of the stratification system?

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  9. What has been the trend since 1960 in welfare (AFDC + Food Stamps) for low income families?

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  10. What had happened in the Clinton administration up until the time the book was written? What has happened since?

 

Chapter 8: An agenda?

  1. What is the "lesson" the authors draw about the causes of changes in public welfare policy?

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  2. What is the "lesson" about government training programs?

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  3. What are the main components of the authors' proposals for government action to counteract the increasing inequality of incomes? Do you know what actually happened?

 
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Last updated March 1, 2000
comments to: Reeve Vanneman. reeve@umd.edu