Have poorer States faired worse in the recession?

2009-07-09 · Original WordPress address

That's not the question Will Wilkinson asked, but until more disaggregate data becomes available we won't know the impact of the recession on inequality. What's more, we only have data at the State level through 2008 so we don't even see the brunt of the badness. Here's State income levels in 2007 plotted against income growth over the next year:

There's a statistically insignificant and small negative relationship between initial income level and growth rate. Beware the ecological fallacy (in reverse).