What Do We Know About Evolution of Top Wealth Shares in the United States? / Wojciech Kopczuk.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kopczuk, Wojciech.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w20734.

NBER working paper series no. w20734

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2014.

Summary:

I discuss available evidence about the evolution of top wealth shares in the United States over the last one hundred years. The three main approaches - Survey of Consumer Finances, estate tax multiplier techniques and capitalization method - generate generally consistent findings until mid-1980s but diverge since then, with 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 surprising increase in fixed income assets. There is evidence that estate tax estimates may not be sufficiently accounting for mortality improvements over time. The non-response and coverage issues in the SCF are a concern. I conclude that changing nature of top incomes and the increased importance of self-made wealth may explain difficulties in implementing each of the methods and account for why the results diverge.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2014.