Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/203043 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
LIS Working Paper Series No. 757
Publisher: 
Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), Luxembourg
Abstract: 
We examine whether economic downturns reshape the distribution of population income giving rise to a "middle-class squeeze." We test this hypothesis using alternative definitions of middle-class, such as income-based measures from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and perceived measures from the Integrated Values Study (IVS). Our findings suggest that, although recessions do not produce a middle-class squeeze overall, the unanticipated shocks resulting from the Great Recession did. Furthermore, we find that recessions increase the share of the population that regards itself as 'middle-class.' Estimates are heterogeneous to the baseline unemployment at the time of a recession, country spending on social protection, to middle-class measures and definitions.
Subjects: 
Middle-class
Great Recession
LIS & IVS data
employment shocks
income distribution
social insurance
JEL: 
F22
I30
J64
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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