YOUNG BABY BOOMERS' WEALTH

Jay Zagorsky

Review of Income and Wealth, 1999, vol. 45, issue 2, 135-156

Abstract: Researchers know relatively little about the beginnings of wealth accumulation. This paper analyzes the wealth of young baby boomers, individuals born from 1957 to 1964, using a previously ignored wealth data set, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79). First, a detailed data quality evaluation is performed. Findings suggest that not cleaning NLSY79 wealth data causes nonsensical results, but there are no other serious problems. Analyzing the cleaned wealth data quantifies many stylized facts. For example, the typical baby boomer's wealth holdings increase by more than $2,000 a year. Married females hold more wealth than either married or unmarried males. Finally, while young boomers start with a majority of their wealth in illiquid holdings such as automobiles and possessions, they rapidly shift their wealth holdings into homes as they grow older.

Date: 1999
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https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4991.1999.tb00325.x

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