Differences in the Measurement of Wealth, Wealth Inequality and Wealth Composition Obtained From Alternative U.S. Wealth Surveys

Abstract

Since household wealth surveys have been widely used to study saving and other issues, it is important to examine the reliability of the various survey estimates of wealth. In this paper the authors assess the quality characteristics of the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Men and the Retirement History Survey, as compared to the 1983 Survey of Consumer Finances. We find that the NLS and especially the RHS underreport wealth and wealth concentration. The underestimates of wealth held in the form of common stock, business equity, and investment real estate equity are substantial. The principal problem lies in underrepresentation of both tails of the wealth and income distributions, with the consequences of underrepresenting the upper tail being especially serious for wealth measurement. We examine several potential reasons for the underrepresentation.

Race, Family Structure, and Wealth: The Effect of Childhood Family on Adult Asset Ownership

“…Because the NLS-Y does not oversample wealthy households, it may underestimate wealth concentration (Juster and Kuester 1991;Juster, Smith, and Stafford 1999). However, my objective is to estimate longitudinal patterns (e.g., the effect of family background on adult outcomes) rather than cross-sectional levels of inequality, and the NLS-Y data are consistent longitudinally with estimates from similar surveys and other data sources (Keister and Moller 2000).…”

The Wealth of Mexican Americans

“…9 SIPP data are not usually thought of as the best source of information for studying trends in wealth holdings in the United States. The Survey of Consumer Finance (SCF) inarguably provides a more comprehensive picture of the wealth distribution of American households than do alternative data sources -such as SIPP -which measure the upper tail of the wealth distribution particularly poorly (see Juster and Kuester, 1991;Juster, et al, 1999). Unfortunately, SCF data do not identify foreign-born individuals.…”

The Wealth and Asset Holdings of U.S.-BORN and Foreign-Born Households: Evidence From Sipp Data

“…Finance (SCF) inarguably provides a more comprehensive picture of the wealth distribution of American households than do alternative data sources -such as SIPP -which measure the upper tail of the wealth distribution particularly poorly (see Juster and Kuester, 1991;Wolff, 1998;Juster, et al, 1999). Unfortunately, SCF data do not identify immigrants.…”