The world’s economists can’t wait to get their hands on US tax returns
“When Americans file their taxes, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) keeps all of the information associated with each filing. Along with income, this includes information like the age and social security number of each member of a household. This information is not only useful for identifying tax fraud and assessing the effects of tweaks to the tax code. It is also the best dataset for assessing income inequality and the odds that a child born poor can become rich. It is even better than the data collected by the US Census Bureau, because it is collected every year and based on actual income data, unlike the Census, which is based on survey questions.”