What Do We Know about the Evolution of Top Wealth Shares in the United States?

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Kopczuk
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fixed Income ◽  
Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽  
Estate Tax ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Wealth Concentration ◽  
Top Incomes ◽  
Mortality Improvements ◽  
Over Time

I discuss available evidence about the evolution of top wealth shares in the United States over the course of the 20th century. The three main approaches—the Survey of Consumer Finances, estate tax multiplier, and capitalization methods—generate generally consistent findings until mid-1980s but diverge since then, with the capitalization method showing a dramatic increase in wealth concentration and the other two methods showing at best a small increase. I discuss strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. The increase in capitalization estimates since 2000 is driven by a dramatic and puzzling increase in fixed income assets. There is evidence that estate tax estimates may not be sufficiently accounting for mortality improvements over time. The nonresponse and coverage issues in the SCF are a concern. I conclude that the changing nature of top incomes and the increased importance of self-made wealth may explain difficulties in implementing each of the methods and why the results diverge.

scholarly journals Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data *

2016 ◽  
Vol 131 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Saez ◽  
Gabriel Zucman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Balance Sheets ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Wealth Concentration ◽  
Top Incomes ◽  
Tax Returns

Abstract This paper combines income tax returns with macroeconomic household balance sheets to estimate the distribution of wealth in the United States since 1913. We estimate wealth by capitalizing the incomes reported by individual taxpayers, accounting for assets that do not generate taxable income. We successfully test our capitalization method in three micro datasets where we can observe both income and wealth: the Survey of Consumer Finance, linked estate and income tax returns, and foundations’ tax records. We find that wealth concentration was high in the beginning of the twentieth century, fell from 1929 to 1978, and has continuously increased since then. The top 0.1% wealth share has risen from 7% in 1978 to 22% in 2012, a level almost as high as in 1929. Top wealth-holders are younger today than in the 1960s and earn a higher fraction of the economy’s labor income. The bottom 90% wealth share first increased up to the mid-1980s and then steadily declined. The increase in wealth inequality in recent decades is due to the upsurge of top incomes combined with an increase in saving rate inequality. We explain how our findings can be reconciled with Survey of Consumer Finances and estate tax data.

scholarly journals Comparing Micro and Macro Sources for Household Accounts in the United States: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (86) ◽  
pp. 1-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa J. Dettling ◽  
◽  
Sebastian J. Devlin-Foltz ◽  
Jacob Krimmel ◽  
Sarah J. Pack ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Household Accounts

scholarly journals Inequality and market concentration, when shareholding is more skewed than consumption

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 550-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Gans ◽  
Andrew Leigh ◽  
Martin Schmalz ◽  
Adam Triggs
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Relative Distribution ◽  
Consumer Expenditure ◽  
Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽  
Consumer Expenditure Survey ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Equity Ownership ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

AbstractEconomic theory suggests that monopoly prices hurt consumers but benefit shareholders. But in a world where individuals or households can be both consumers and shareholders, the impact of market power on inequality depends in part on the relative distribution of consumption and corporate equity ownership across individuals or households. The paper calculates this distribution for the United States, using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances and the Consumer Expenditure Survey, spanning nearly three decades from 1989 to 2016. In 2016, the top 20 per cent consumed approximately as much as the bottom 60 per cent, but had 15 times as much corporate equity. Because ownership is more skewed than consumption, increased mark-ups increase inequality. Moreover, over time, corporate equity has become even more skewed relative to consumption.

scholarly journals The Dynamics of Privately Held Business Assets in the United States

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Pernell ◽  
Geoffrey Wodtke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Relative Number ◽  
The United States ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Private Business ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Privately Held Firms ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Privately Held

Although privately held businesses are central to the American economy, little is known about how their assets are distributed among the population. In this study, we describe the household distribution of private business assets in the United States and examine how it has changed over time. Using data from the 1989-2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, we show that the relative number of business owners has remained stagnant at low levels and that assets in privately held firms have become increasingly concentrated among the wealthiest owners over time. At the most recent wave of data collection, the top 1% of households controlled nearly 80% of private business assets, up from about 70% in the late 1980s. We attempt to explain this trend by evaluating how technological change, the financialization of banking, and rising market power have influenced the distribution of private business assets in recent decades. Our findings suggest that all three factors contributed to increasing asset concentration in this sector.

Improving the Measurement of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Survey of Consumer Finances

FEDS Notes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (2945) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin B. Moore ◽  
◽  
Karen M. Pence ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Ethnic Disparities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Racial And Ethnic Disparities ◽  
Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽  
Consumer Finances

The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is one of the main data sources in the United States for assessing and analyzing differences in wealth and financial well-being across families. In recent years, the SCF estimates of racial and ethnic wealth gaps have garnered considerable attention, in part because these disparities are so large and persistent.

scholarly journals Recent Trends in the Size Distribution of Household Wealth

1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward N Wolff
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Size Distribution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Household Wealth ◽  
Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽  
Net Worth ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Recent Trends

Based on the Survey of Consumer Finances, the distribution of wealth in the United States became much more unequal in the 1980s and that trend continued, albeit at a slower pace, in the 1990s. The only households that saw their mean net worth rise in absolute terms between 1983 and 1995 were those in the top 20 percent and the gains were particularly strong for the top one percent. All other groups were particularly strong for the top one percent. All other groups suffered real wealth losses, including the median household, and declines were particularly precipitous at the bottom. Racial disparities widened, and young households also lost out over this period.

An Analysis of Fraudulent Qui Tam Actions Over Time in the United States

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen A. Fitzner ◽  
Charlie Bennett ◽  
June McKoy ◽  
Cara Tigue
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Over Time

The New Economic Populism and the Future of Inequality in the United States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William W. Franko ◽  
Christopher Witko
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Income Disparities ◽  
The Face ◽  
Over Time

The authors conclude the book by recapping their arguments and empirical results, and discussing the possibilities for the “new economic populism” to promote egalitarian economic outcomes in the face of continuing gridlock and the dominance of Washington, DC’s policymaking institutions by business and the wealthy, and a conservative Republican Party. Many states are actually addressing inequality now, and these policies are working. Admittedly, many states also continue to embrace the policies that have contributed to growing inequality, such as tax cuts for the wealthy or attempting to weaken labor unions. But as the public grows more concerned about inequality, the authors argue, policies that help to address these income disparities will become more popular, and policies that exacerbate inequality will become less so. Over time, if history is a guide, more egalitarian policies will spread across the states, and ultimately to the federal government.

scholarly journals Thirty-Day Laboratory-Based Surveillance for Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin C. Pereira ◽  
Kristin M. Shaw ◽  
Paula M. Snippes Vagnone ◽  
Jane E. Harper ◽  
Alexander J. Kallen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
The United States ◽  
Carbapenem Resistant ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are a growing problem in the United States. We explored the feasibility of active laboratory-based surveillance of CRE in a metropolitan area not previously considered to be an area of CRE endemicity. We provide a framework to address CRE surveillance and to monitor changes in the incidence of CRE infection over time.

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