[en] Although it is heartening to see wealth inequality being taken seriously, key concepts are often muddled, including the distinction between income and wealth, what is included in "wealth", and facts about wealth distributions. This chapter highlights issues that arise in making ideas and facts about wealth inequality precise, and employs newly-available data to take a fresh look at wealth and wealth inequality in a comparative perspective. The composition of wealth is similar across countries, with housing wealth being the key asset. Wealth is considerably more unequally distributed than income, and it is distinctively so in the United States. Extending definitions to include pension wealth however reduces inequality substantially. Analysis also sheds light on life-cycle patterns and the role of inheritance. Discussion of the joint distributions of income and wealth suggests that interactions between increasing top income shares and the concentration of wealth and income from wealth towards the top is critical.
Disciplines :
Sociologie & sciences sociales Economie sociale
Auteur, co-auteur :
Cowell, Frank A.; London School of Economics
Nolan, Brian; University of Oxford
Olivera, Javier; Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research - LISER
VAN KERM, Philippe ; Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research - LISER
Co-auteurs externes :
yes
Langue du document :
Anglais
Titre :
Wealth, Top Incomes, and Inequality
Date de publication/diffusion :
2017
Titre de l'ouvrage principal :
National Wealth: What is Missing, Why it Matters
Editeur scientifique :
Hamilton, Kirk
Hepburn, Cameron
Maison d'édition :
Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, Inconnu/non spécifié
