Trickle-Down Economics: It Really Works!

In San Antonio:

Chart from new New York Federal Reserve paper looking into the causes of increased poverty in New York City. The conclusion:

Authors Mark K. Levitan and Susan S. Wieler find that demographic factors, coupled with a sharp drop in mean family income, played a leading role in the dramatic rise in the New York City poverty rate from 1969 to 1979. Furthermore, an increase in income inequality linked to the stagnation of wages at the low end of the earnings distribution and a rising share of the city's population in poverty-prone groups largely explains the stable but stubbornly high poverty rate between 1979 and 1999.

Findings by Levitan and Wieler support the need for policy efforts in New York City to address wages for workers at the lower end of the pay scale, including the consideration of indexing the minimum wage to the annual rise in the cost of living. Local policymakers could also consider a continued expansion of the earned income tax credit and other tax credits that supplement earnings, according to the authors.