THE KUZNETS CURVE AND THE GREAT U-TURN - INCOME INEQUALITY IN US COUNTRIES, 1970 TO 1990

We examine the determinants of inequality in the distribution of famil y income in approximately 3,100 counties of the United States in 1970, 1980, and 1990. Such a study provides a ''window'' on global trends i n social inequality during the period, which spans the tail end of the Kuznets curve and the more recent upswing in income inequality. Resul ts from random-effects repression models that control for unmeasured h eterogeneity among states reveal the continued importance of the Kuzne tsian pattern of declining inequality with economic development, a pos itive effort of urbanization on ineguality, a declining positive impac t of sector dualism, an increasing positive effect of educational hete rogeneity, and a persistent effect of racial dualism. Several variable s associated with the recent upswing in inequality have significant ef fects: female labor-force population (negative), female-headed househo lds (positive), percent of the population over age 65 (changes from po sitive to negative over the period), manufacturing employment (negativ e), and umemployment (ambiguous). We also discuss methods of estimatin g the Gini coefficient for income inequality at the country level and measures of sector (farm/nonfarm) dualism, racial (Black/White) dualis m, and educational heterogeneity.