Public policy and the income distribution Over the last forty years rising national income has helped reduce poverty rates but this has been accompanied by an increase in economic inequality. While these trends are largely attributed to technological change and demographic shifts such as changing birth rates labor force patterns and immigration public policies have also exerted a profound affect on the welfare of Americans. In Public Policy and the Income Distribution editors Alan Auerbach David Card and John Quigley assemble a distinguished roster of policy analysts to confront the key questions about the role of government policy in altering the level and distribution of economic well being.