1. Consider the Distributional National Accounts data from economists Piketty, Saez, and Zucman.

 a) Briefly describe the purpose of the Distributional National Accounts.

 b) What did the researchers find out about the change in the pre-tax national income shares of the top 1% and the bottom 50% from around 1962 to 2014? 

c) Contrast how growth in national income was distributed across income groups of the population over the period 1980-2014 with its distribution during the period from 1946- 1980.

 d) How did the bottom 50% pre-tax and post-tax income compare to their cash income over this period? 

e) Discuss briefly whether government taxation and public good spending made the bottom 50% better off. 

f) Can you make procedural judgements of fairness based on the estimates of the distributional national accounts? Give an example of what more information you might need to make a judgement.