The changing distribution of wealth in the pre-crisis US and UK: the role of socio-economic factors

Frank Cowell (), Eleni Karagiannaki and Abigail McKnight

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

Abstract: The USA and the UK experienced substantial increases in net wealth in the decade that preceded the financial crisis, largely driven by house-price booms in each country. The distribution of these gains across households led to a slight increase in wealth inequality in the USA but a substantial fall in inequality in the UK. We use a decomposition technique to examine the extent to which changes in households' socioeconomic characteristics explain changes in wealth holdings and wealth inequality. In both countries we find that changes in household characteristics had an equalizing effect on wealth inequality, moderating the increase in the USA and accounting for over one-third of the fall in UK wealth inequality.

JEL-codes: C81 D31 D63 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2019-01-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in Oxford Economic Papers, 1, January, 2019, 71(1), pp. 1-24. ISSN: 0030-7653

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Journal Article: The changing distribution of wealth in the pre-crisis US and UK: the role of socio-economic factors (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:89833

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