The Rising Instability of American Family Incomes, 1969-2004: Evidence from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics

Authors Jacob S. Hacker and Elisabeth Jacobs found that this growing income volatility has been largely hidden behind the wall of relatively stable overall economic statistics. Their examination of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which tracks the income patterns of thousands of individuals and their families since the 1960s, shows that income patterns for many families have become much more erratic. As if rising price pressures at the gas pump and the grocery check-out line weren’t trouble enough, a new research study published today uncovers an ominous trend that poses a broad threat to the economic bedrock that American families’ living standards are built on. “The Rising Instability of American Family Incomes, 1969-2004,” published today by the Economic Policy Institute, documents that more families – across the entire demographic spectrum – are being swamped by a rising tide of income