Where is the Middle Class? Inequality, Gender and the Shape of the Upper Tail from 60 million English Death and Probate Records

Neil Cummins

No 13436, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper analyses a newly constructed individual level dataset of every English death and probate from 1892-2016. The estimated top wealth shares match closely existing estimates. However, this analysis clearly shows that the 20th century's `Great Equalization' of wealth stalled in mid-century. The probate rate, which captures the proportion of English with any significant wealth at death rose from 10% in the 1890s to 40% by 1950 and has stagnated to 2016. Despite the large declines in the wealth share of the top 1%, from 73% to 20%, the median English person died with almost nothing throughout. All changes in inequality after 1950 involve a reshuffling of wealth within the top 30%. Further, I find that a log-linear distribution fits the empirical data better than a Pareto power law. Finally, I show that the top wealth shares are increasingly and systematically male as one ascends in wealth, 1892-1992, but this has equalized over the 20th century.

Keywords: Inequality; Economic history; Big data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 N00 N33 N34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-his
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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