since more redistributive taxtransfer systems tend to be more effective as a backstop to widening earnings gaps redistribution in the us was also less effective at offsetting the substantial increase in the marketincome inequality in the decades leading up to the gr focussing on more recent policy changes we then calculate income gains and losses that can be attributed to reforms shortly before and after the gr at different points in the earnings spectrum the results show that a combination of discretionary and automatic policy changes in the us have significantly narrowed the pregr gap between the equalising capacities of us and european redistribution measures and between their abilities to cushion the effects of economic shocks on household income we argue however that this is unlikely to signify any longerterm convergence and that europeus comparisons need to go beyond the common focus on differences in redistribution levels