标题： 帕累托的界限：改善1917年至1965年美国的不平等估计 显示英文标题

标题： Pareto's Limits: Improving Inequality Estimates in America, 1917 to 1965

摘要： 美国20世纪的收入不平等通常通过税收数据估计，广泛被认为是遵循U型曲线，尽管关于这条曲线的程度仍存在争议，特别是关于峰顶的高度和谷底的深度。 这些争议集中在如何定义收入和处理扣除方面的假设上。 然而，使用税收机构的表格数据来估计最富有百分位数的收入时，插值方法的选择——尤其是在没有微观文件可用的情况下——尚未被讨论。 这至关重要，因为从1917年到1965年，表格数据一直被持续使用。 在本文中，我们展示了帕累托插值（PI）标准方法之外的另一种选择。 我们证明这种替代方法——最大熵（ME）——提供了更准确的结果，并导致了收入不平等U型曲线形状的重大修订。 显示英文摘要

摘要： American income inequality, generally estimated with tax data, in the 20th century is widely recognized to have followed a U-curve, though debates persist over the extent of this curve, specifically regarding how high the peaks are and how deep the trough is. These debates focus on assumptions about defining income and handling deductions. However, the choice of interpolation methods for using tax authorities' tabular data to estimate the income of the richest centiles -- especially when no micro-files are available -- has not been discussed. This is crucial because tabular data were consistently used from 1917 to 1965. In this paper, we show that there is an alternative to the standard method of Pareto Interpolation (PI). We demonstrate that this alternative -- Maximum Entropy (ME) -- provides more accurate results and leads to significant revisions in the shape of the U-curve of income inequality.