In this article, a method is developed to evaluate the effects of wife's income on family income inequality, and those effects are examined between 1967 and 1976 employing data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The coefficient of variation is employed as a measure of family income inequality. Results indicate that income inequality increased substantially between 1967 and 1976 for U.S. families, but this increase was not due to the effects of wife's income. There have been substantial differences in the effects of wife's income for black and white families. In general, a movement toward greater equality of earnings between husbands and wives would tend to promote less family income inequality.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.