Rising inequality and declining mobility in the Forbes 400

Ricardo Fernholz and Kara Hagler

Economics Letters, 2023, vol. 230, issue C

Abstract: We examine the joint evolution of inequality and mobility from 1985–2020 using a novel data set of intergenerational family wealth dynamics constructed from the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans. In recent decades, the concentration of wealth at the very top of the distribution has risen in the U.S. Over this same period, we show that mobility among the wealthiest American family dynasties has declined, with mobility measured either as family wealth-rank correlations over one-year and five-year periods or as the number of new entrants at the top of the distribution.

Keywords: Inequality; Mobility; Power laws; Forbes 400 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D30 D31 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:230:y:2023:i:c:s0165176523002604

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111235

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