Income and Wealth Inequality in America, 1949-2016

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kuhn, Moritz; Schularick, Moritz; Steins, Ulrike I.
• 署名单位: University of Bonn; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; IZA Institute Labor Economics
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/708815
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 3469-3519
• 关键词: UNITED-STATES; earnings inequality; TRENDS; SHARES

摘要

This paper introduces a new long-run data set based on archival data from historical waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances. Studying the joint distribution of household income and wealth, we expose the central importance of portfolio composition and asset prices for wealth dynamics in postwar America. Asset prices shift the wealth distribution because of systematic differences in household portfolios along the wealth distribution. Middle-class portfolios are dominated by housing, while rich households predominantly own business equity. Differential changes in equity and house prices shaped wealth dynamics in postwar America and decoupled the income and wealth distribution over extended periods.