Estimating the Distribution of Household Wealth in South Africa

Aroop Chatterjee, Léo Czajka and Amory Gethin
Additional contact information
Aroop Chatterjee: WITS - University of the Witwatersrand [Johannesburg]

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: This paper estimates the distribution of personal wealth in South Africa by com- bining tax microdata covering the universe of income tax returns, household surveys and macroeconomic balance sheets statistics. We systematically compare estimates of the wealth distribution obtained by direct measurement of net worth, rescaling of reported wealth to balance sheets totals, and capitalisation of income flows. We document major inconsistencies between available data sources, in particular re- garding the measurement of dividends, corporate assets and wealth held through trusts. Both household surveys and tax data remain insufficient to properly capture capital incomes. Notwithstanding a significant degree of uncertainty, our findings reveal unparalleled levels of wealth concentration. The top 10 per cent own 86 per cent of aggregate wealth and the top 0.1 per cent close to one third. The top 0.01 per cent of the distribution (3,500 individuals) concentrate 15 per cent of household net worth, more than the bottom 90 per cent as a whole. Such high levels of inequality can be accounted for in all forms of assets at the top end, including housing, pen- sion funds and other financial assets. Our series show no sign of decreasing wealth inequality since apartheid: if anything, we find that inequality has remained broadly stable and has even slightly increased within top wealth groups.

Keywords: Distribution; Wealth; South Africa; inequality; welfare state (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://pjse.hal.science/hal-02876974v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://pjse.hal.science/hal-02876974v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Estimating the Distribution of Household Wealth in South Africa (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02876974

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().