Measuring wealth and wealth inequality: Comparing two U.S. surveys

Measuring Wealth and Wealth Inequality: Comparing Two U.S. Surveys.

Household wealth and its distribution are topics of broad public debate and increasing scholarly interest. We compare the relative strength of two of the main data sources used in research on the wealth holdings of U.S. households, the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), by providing a description and explanation of differences in the level and distr...

Wealth Inequality, Wealth Constraints and Economic Performance

It is well known that if costlessly enforceable contracts regulate all of the actions of economic actors that a ect the well being of others, competitive equilibria are Pareto e cient regardless of the distribution of wealth. However where actions such as risk taking and hard work are not subject to such contracts, the assignment of residual claimancy over income streams and control over assets...

Wealth Inequality and Accumulation.

Research on wealth inequality and accumulation and the data upon which it relies have expanded substantially in the twenty-first century. While the field has experienced rapid growth, conceptual and methodological challenges remain. We begin by discussing two major unresolved methodological concerns facing wealth research: how to address challenges to causal inference posed by wealth's cumulati...

Antitrust and Wealth Inequality

In recent years, progressive public intellectuals and prominent scholars have asserted that monopoly power lies at the root of wealth inequality and that increases in antitrust enforcement are necessary to stem its rising tide. This claim is misguided. Exercises of market power have complex, crosscutting effects that undermine the generality of the monopoly regressivity claim. Contrary to what ...

Modeling Wealth Inequality