If readers recall anything from their Econ 101 class, it is likely that the intersection of supply and demand curves reveals a product’s price and the quantity produced. Of course, there are many situations where those curves shift and complications arise within markets, but the general insight holds: the interaction of buyers and sellers informs prices and quantities.

In recent years, some central banks have added a new responsibility to their list of tasks: ameliorate the effects of climate change. This could mean monitoring the short- and long-term exposure of financial institutions to climate change, or it could mean actively directing regulated financial institutions to invest in certain industries. In either case, central banks will have to determine how best to anticipate the likely effects of climate change many years into the future.

One puzzle for researchers in recent decades surrounds two seemingly contradictory facts: The wage gap between Black and White men has remained stubbornly large in recent decades while, over the same period, racial discrimination has steadily declined. This divergence has occurred even as the racial gap in test scores, conditional on education, has also narrowed.

The stagnation of average earnings and rising income inequality in the United States since the 1970s has not only motivated economic research but has also informed discussions about political shifts among various demographics, as well as inspired policy debates about how to address this long-run phenomenon. This is especially true when it comes to the fate of male workers.

The United States has seen stagnation of average earnings and income inequality rise since the 1970s. The charts below help shed light on this issue using data from US Social Security Administration (SSA) records over 57 years.