Capital Shares and Income Inequality: Evidence from the Long Run

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lund University; University of Gothenburg; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); IZA Institute Labor Economics
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050718000347
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 712-743
• 关键词: decline; ratios; sweden

摘要

This article studies the long-run relationship between the capital share in national income and top personal income shares. Using a newly constructed historical cross-country database on capital shares and top income data, we find evidence on a strong, positive link that has grown stronger over the past century. The connection is stronger in Anglo-Saxon countries, in the very top of the distribution, when top capital incomes predominate, when using distributed top national income shares, and when considering gross of depreciation capital shares. Out of-sample predictions of top shares using capital shares indicates several cases of over- or underestimation.