GEOWEALTH-US: spatial wealth inequality data for the United States, 1960–2020

Joel Suss, Tom Kemeny and Dylan S. Connor

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Wealth inequality has been sharply rising in the United States and across many other high-income countries. Due to a lack of data, we know little about how this trend has unfolded across locations within countries. Examining the subnational geography of wealth is crucial because, from one generation to the next, it shapes the distribution of opportunity, disadvantage, and power across individuals and communities. By employing machine-learning-based imputation to link national historical surveys conducted by the U.S. Federal Reserve to population survey microdata, the data presented in this article addresses this gap. The Geographic Wealth Inequality Database (“GEOWEALTH-US”) provides the first estimates of the level and distribution of wealth at various geographical scales within the United States from 1960 to 2020. The GEOWEALTH-US database enables new lines of investigation into the contribution of spatial wealth disparities to major societal challenges including wealth concentration, income inequality, social mobility, housing unaffordability, and political polarization.

JEL-codes: D31 D60 E01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2024-02-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-cmp, nep-geo, nep-his and nep-ure
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Published in Scientific Data, 28, February, 2024, 11. ISSN: 2052-4463

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/122377/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: GEOWEALTH: spatial wealth inequality data for the United States, 1960-2020 (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:122377

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