For my research paper I am interested in analyzing the possible effects of income inequality on overall U.S. economic growth. I will be using Gini coefficients to measure income inequality and annual GDP percentage growth to measure overall economic growth.While I’m aware that there are a number of other factors that affect economic growth, I’ve recently started reading books and articles that suggest the rising income inequality over the past decade or so has been negatively effecting the economy. I’m interested in finding if these claims are accurate and can be supported through statistical evidence.
In all honesty I was not the least bit interested in this subject until a few weeks ago when I was introduced to it though another class. I’m currently reading a book called The Haves and the Have-Nots, which explores the growing income inequality in the U.S. and suggests that it is damaging our economic prospects. However, I’ve also read articles that suggest the opposite is true. I’m going to have to find more sources, especially those that including previous statistical analysis on the subject. Just looking at the data I have now it’s difficult to see if there is going to be a correlation or not, so hopefully I’ll be able to find some more previous research on the subject. However, looking at the Gini coefficients, there is a clear pattern that income inequality has been increasing since 1967 when the data was first collected. I want to find what out what this increase implies, specifically on economic growth, which does not show such a clear pattern.
Hopefully by the end of the project I will be able to state whether there is a relationship between the rising income inequality in the U.S. and overall economic growth. I’ve been reading many articles that debate on the subject and I want to reach a conclusion that hopefully I will be able to support with statistics through my findings after the completion of this project. I find this to be a very interesting topic and I’m looking forward to exploring the uneven distribution of income in the U.S. and its implications.
merobr01 
Brittany, your topic sounds very interesting and I am curious to see what you find once you do your analysis. Similarly, my thesis is pertaining to economic growth as well and its relationship with the unemployment rate. There are definitely other factors that effect this relationship. What factors do you think also play a role in the relationship between income inequality and economic growth?
I’ve been thinking about other variables to include in my analysis and I’m not entirely sure until I do more research, but I think I would like to do something with unemployment and poverty. I think unemployment relates to income inequality since individuals without a job will see a decrease in income. I’m still working out the details, but I plan on refining my model with more variables.