Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States: Rising Debt and the Middle-Class Squeeze - An Update to 2007

Wolff, Edward N.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1585409

Cited by 145 publications

(119 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

116

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Even limiting the sample to recipients lowers the Gini coefficient to only 0.80. This compares to a Gini coefficient for net worth in 1998 of 0.82 (see Wolff, 2010). There is a U-shaped pattern of wealth transfer inequality with respect to income level, with Gini coefficients for recipients only falling from 0.73 for the bottom income class to 0.66 for the middle one and then rising steeply to 0.90 for the top income class.…”

Section: Trends In the Inequality Of Wealth Transfers 1989 To 2007mentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Calculations will be performed through the year 2007. There is some reason to think that the trend has reversed because the current generation of elderly is now the richest in history (see Wolff, 2010). Moreover, the baby-boom generation has now reached the prime inheritance age group of 50 to 59 (see Wolff, 1999 and2003).…”

Section: Previous Calculations From the Federal Reserve Board's Survementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Inheritances and the distribution of wealth or whatever happened to the great inheritance boom?

Wolff

Gittleman

2013

J Econ Inequal

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:We found that on average over the period from 1989 to 2007, 21 percent of American households at a given point of time received a wealth transfer and these accounted for 23 percent of their net worth. Over the lifetime, about 30 percent of households could expect to receive a wealth transfer and these would account for close to 40 percent of their net worth near time of death. However, there is little evidence of an inheritance "boom." In fact, from 1989 to 2007, the share of households reporting a wealth transfer fell by 2.5 percentage points. The average value of inheritances received among all households did increase but at a slow pace, by 10 percent, and wealth transfers as a proportion of current net worth fell sharply over this period from 29 to 19 percent or by 10 percentage points. We also found, somewhat surprisingly, that inheritances and other wealth transfers tend to be equalizing in terms of the distribution of household wealth. Indeed, the addition of wealth transfers to other sources of household wealth has had a sizeable effect on reducing the inequality of wealth. JEL Codes: D31, J15

show abstract

Section: Trends In the Inequality Of Wealth Transfers 1989 To 2007mentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Previous Calculations From the Federal Reserve Board's Survementioning

confidence: 99%

Inheritances and the distribution of wealth or whatever happened to the great inheritance boom?

Wolff

Gittleman

2013

J Econ Inequal

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Let us consider wealth distribution in the US just before the financial crisis in 2007. According to Edward N. Wolff (2010), those in the bottom 40% of the wealth distribution controlled only 0.2% of total wealth, whereas the top 1% controlled 34.6%. Calculating the proportion controlled by the top 10% gives the staggering figure of 73.1% of total wealth.…”

Section: The Fact(s) Of Rising Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Egalitarianism and the Great Recession: A Tale of Missed Connections?

Maffettone

2017

Res Publica

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The main aim of this paper is to act as a corrective to the comparatively deafening silence of egalitarian political philosophy's response to the Great Recession. The paper thus provides an accessible analysis of a new strand of empirical research into the causes of the crisis. This new literature, which has largely gone unnoticed by the broader philosophical community, maintains that the main driver of financial instability is income and wealth inequality coupled with income stagnation at the bottom of the income distribution. Building on this empirical research, the paper puts forward six connections between egalitarian political philosophy broadly construed, and the findings of the new literature it surveys. These connections are understood as operating in two directions: that is, they both provide reasons for egalitarians to play a larger role in debates concerning the moral aspects of financial instability, and also offer valuable insights to egalitarians to reorient their position concerning central facets of their arguments.

show abstract

“…Personal income inequality and wealth concentration tend to be self-reinforcing because high income households save a higher proportion of their income and "wealth has a substantial impact on the share of income earned by those in the top 0.5 percent of the [adjusted gross income] distribution" (Tuttle and Gauger, 2006, p.506). Another reason for this exceptional increase in wealth concentration was the sharp increase of global stock market prices and real estate values, since increasing asset prices automatically translate into higher wealth holdings of their owners, who mainly belong to the richest segment of the population (Wolff, 2010).…”

Section: Note: Estimates Of Inequality Of Net Worth Between Living Admentioning

confidence: 99%

A Case for Redistribution? Income Inequality and Wealth Concentration in the Recent Crisis

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States: Rising Debt and the Middle-Class Squeeze - An Update to 2007

Cited by 145 publications

References 14 publications

Inheritances and the distribution of wealth or whatever happened to the great inheritance boom?

Inheritances and the distribution of wealth or whatever happened to the great inheritance boom?

Egalitarianism and the Great Recession: A Tale of Missed Connections?

A Case for Redistribution? Income Inequality and Wealth Concentration in the Recent Crisis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About