The Espresso Index

Resources

One reading list per audience, built entirely from pages on this site — so every link carries its sourcing with it.

Citizens

Citizen starter pack

Six stops that take you from 'what is this?' to understanding the biggest open debate, in plain language.

  1. What is income inequality? — Start here.
  2. How is inequality measured? — So the numbers make sense.
  3. US top income shares chart — See the century in one picture.
  4. The Fading American Dream (Chetty et al. 2017) — The finding most people feel directly.
  5. Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Piketty 2014) — The big book — and why it's contested.
  6. Technology or politics? — The field's central argument, both sides.

Researchers

Researcher / syllabus list

A reading order for a graduate seminar: foundations, measurement, the labor-economics and political-science accounts, then frontier work.

  1. Kuznets (1955) — Foundational theory.
  2. Meltzer & Richard (1981) — Median-voter prediction.
  3. Piketty & Saez (2003) — Tax-data measurement.
  4. Atkinson, Piketty & Saez (2011) — Cross-country survey.
  5. Katz & Murphy (1992) — SBTC canon.
  6. Goldin & Katz (2008) — Education vs. technology.
  7. Gilens & Page (2014) — Read with its critiques.
  8. Chetty et al. (2014) — Mobility and place.
  9. Solt (2020) — SWIID; use for cross-national work.
  10. Full bibliography (BibTeX) — All 22 entries, import-ready.

Educators & media

Educator / journalist kit

Charts with sourcing built in, balanced framing for contested claims, and the methodology page to cite.

  1. US top income shares chart — Data stamp + methodology + download, ready to cite.
  2. Country comparison (Gini) — Pick the countries your story or lesson needs.
  3. Does inequality hurt growth? — Balanced framing of a contested question.
  4. The Gilens–Page debate — A famous finding and its critics.
  5. The Kuznets curve — A self-contained 10-minute lesson.
  6. How we verify citations — What 'verified' means on this site.