Household wealth trends in the United States, 1983-2010

Wolff, Edward N.

doi:10.1093/oxrep/gru001

Cited by 100 publications

(132 citation statements)

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“…Pfeffer, Danziger, and Schoeni (2013) document that the median household in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics lost more than 50 percent of its wealth between 2007 and 2011, and that 83 percent of that loss came from real estate. Wolff (2014) found that Housing supply shapes these wealth transfers because it partially determines the extent of a housing convulsion. Glaeser, Gyourko, and Saiz (2008) show that the 1980s housing boom and subsequent bust largely bypassed places with elastic housing supply.…”

Section: The Impact Of Supply Restrictions: Household Wealthmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Economic Implications of Housing Supply

Glaeser

Gyourko

2018

Journal of Economic Perspectives

330

119

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In this essay, we review the basic economics of housing supply and the functioning of US housing markets to better understand the distribution of home prices, household wealth, and the spatial distribution of people across markets. We employ a cost-based approach to gauge whether a housing market is delivering appropriately priced units. Specifically, we investigate whether market prices (roughly) equal the costs of producing the housing unit. If so, the market is well-functioning in the sense that it efficiently delivers housing units at their production cost. The gap between price and production cost can be understood as a regulatory tax. The available evidence suggests, but does not definitively prove, that the implicit tax on development created by housing regulations is higher in many areas than any reasonable negative externalities associated with new construction. We discuss two main effects of developments in housing prices: on patterns of household wealth and on the incentives for relocation to high-wage, high-productivity areas. Finally, we turn to policy implications.

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Section: The Impact Of Supply Restrictions: Household Wealthmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Economic Implications of Housing Supply

Glaeser

Gyourko

2018

Journal of Economic Perspectives

330

119

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“…Previous work (see Wolff, 1987Wolff, , 1994Wolff, , 1998Wolff, , 2002Wolff, , and 2011, using the SCF, presented evidence of sharply increasing household wealth inequality between 1983 and 1989 followed by …”

Section: Background On Wealth Trendsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Deconstructing Household Wealth Trends in the United States, 1983 - 2013

Wolff¹

2016

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These two movements can be traced to the high leverage of middle class families, the high share of homes in their portfolio, and the drop in house prices. There was virtually no change in median wealth and wealth inequality from 2010 to 2013 according to the SCF despite the recovery in asset prices. A decomposition analysis based on "pseudo-panels" indicates that for the middle three wealth quintiles, capital revaluation explained virtually all of the change in simulated mean wealth over the 1983-1989, 1989-2001, 2001-2007, 2007-2010, and 2010-2013 periods, and implicit savings were negative. Trends in inequality as measured by the change in the P99/P2080 ratio largely reflected differences in rates of return and savings rates between the top one percent and the middle three wealth quintiles. Over 1983-1989, the higher savings rate of the top group explained all the increase.

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“…California, where labor has benefitted from a "powerful mix of the awakening militancy among the mushrooming low-wage, largely immigrant workforce, the growing political strength of labor in local and state elected bodies, and the use of that political clout to improve the climate for organizing" provides perhaps the best-case scenario (Zabin, At the heart of emerging institutional change is the traditional radical principle that the ownership of capital should be subject to democratic control. In a nation where one percent of the population owns more investment wealth than the remaining 99 percent (51.5 percent of total), this principle is likely to be particularly appealing to the young-the people who will shape the next political era (Wolff, 2014). Civil Rights, feminist, and other great movements.…”

Section: Evolutionary Reconstruction In the Era Of Growing Painmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Possibility of a Pluralist Commonwealth Evolutionary Reconstruction Toward a Caring and Just Political Economy

Alperovitz¹

2017

IJPS

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New developments at various level of the political-economic system suggest possible institutional trajectories supportive of community, and a longer term systemic design more supportive of strong democracy and a caring culture. An integration of institutional elements also offers possibilities more productive of equality and ecologically sustainable outcomes. The “Pluralist Commonwealth” is both pluralist in its institutional characteristics and supportive of such “commonwealth” institutions as co-operatives, neighborhood land trusts and community corporations, municipal utilities and a range of other larger scale ownership forms. An “evolutionary reconstructive” institutional, political, and cultural path is projected as a longer term transformative process different from both traditional reform and traditional ideas of revolution. Such a path inherently seeks to maximize the development of a caring community as it builds.

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Household wealth trends in the United States, 1983-2010

Cited by 100 publications

References 1 publication

The Economic Implications of Housing Supply

The Economic Implications of Housing Supply

Deconstructing Household Wealth Trends in the United States, 1983 - 2013

The Possibility of a Pluralist Commonwealth Evolutionary Reconstruction Toward a Caring and Just Political Economy

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