The upshot is that aggregate measures obscure what's really happening when there's a wide range of observations.
On average, wealth has increased since the Great Recession, but dis-aggregate the data and you'll find that many communities aren't very healthy.
This study dis-aggregates by zip code, and if you could further decomp into neighborhoods I'm sure you'd see much greater disparities.
But what does this ultimately say that we didn't already know? That the US is an extraordinarily unequal society? That the "recovery" was captured by some and left others behind?
Taking this to the next logical analytical step would be really powerful. How does this economic recovery compare with prior recoveries? When the next recession hits, who will bear the heaviest burden? Do the communities hurt most also show other signs of distress like lower life expectancy, higher crime rates, etc.? Is there a causal relationship we can detect?
If so, what are the implications for fiscal and monetary policy?
The next logical step would be to look inside the groups.
Say, we found that Chinese, on average, got better off, Mexicans, on average, got worse. Excellent. But surely some Chinese got worse and some Mexicans got better. That's where the answer may be. What did these people do that might explain the difference?
> Taking this to the next logical analytical step would be really powerful. How does this economic recovery compare with prior recoveries? When the next recession hits, who will bear the heaviest burden?
Do you know of anyone who is doing this specific analysis?
This is a little strong of a statement for me. Sure, the economy isn't a zero sum game, but that doesn't mean that it automatically benefits everyone equally
On average, wealth has increased since the Great Recession, but dis-aggregate the data and you'll find that many communities aren't very healthy.
This study dis-aggregates by zip code, and if you could further decomp into neighborhoods I'm sure you'd see much greater disparities.
But what does this ultimately say that we didn't already know? That the US is an extraordinarily unequal society? That the "recovery" was captured by some and left others behind?
Taking this to the next logical analytical step would be really powerful. How does this economic recovery compare with prior recoveries? When the next recession hits, who will bear the heaviest burden? Do the communities hurt most also show other signs of distress like lower life expectancy, higher crime rates, etc.? Is there a causal relationship we can detect?
If so, what are the implications for fiscal and monetary policy?