We investigate household income/expenditure inequality using survey data for the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1961. Previous studies employed tax unit or wage rate data. Between 1937/8 and 1953/4, we find little change in inequality for incomes below the top 5 per cent or 10 per cent. This is consistent with the tax unit data. By 1961, inequality was notably higher than in 1953/4. Three trends might account for this: growth in the shares of non-working and multiple-worker households, and in the proportion of non-manual jobs. Non-manual jobs are diverse in skills and earnings. We find the upward impact on inequality of the rise of non-working households is mostly offset by their being both smaller and poorer. Data limitations disallow evaluating the impacts of the other two trends, but they are consistent with steady postwar wage differentials observed by other studies.

中文翻译：

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英国的家庭结构、劳动参与和经济不平等，1937-61

我们使用 1937 年至 1961 年英国的调查数据来调查家庭收入/支出不平等。之前的研究采用了税收单位或工资率数据。从 1937 年 8 月到 1953 年 4 月，我们发现收入低于顶层 5% 或 10% 的人的不平等几乎没有变化。这与税收单位数据一致。到 1961 年，不平等现象明显高于 1953/4 年。三个趋势可能可以解释这一点：非工作和多人工作家庭比例的增长，以及非体力工作比例的增长。非体力工作的技能和收入各不相同。我们发现，非工作家庭的增加对不平等的向上影响大部分被其规模较小和贫困所抵消。数据限制无法评估其他两种趋势的影响，但它们与其他研究观察到的战后稳定工资差异​​是一致的。