Capital shares and income inequality: Evidence from the long run

Daniel Waldenström and Erik Bengtsson

No 11022, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between the capital share in national income and personal income inequality over the long run. Using a new historical cross-country database on capital shares in 19 countries and data from the World Top Income Database, we find strong long-run links between the aggregate role of capital in the economy and the size distribution of income. Over time, this dependence varies; it was strong both before the Second World War and in the early interwar era, but has grown to its highest levels in the period since 1980. The correlation is particularly strong in Anglo-Saxon and Nordic countries, in the very top of the distribution and when we only consider top capital incomes. Replacing top income shares with a broader measure of inequality (Gini coefficient), the positive relationship remains but becomes somewhat weaker.

Keywords: Inequality; Top incomes; Wage share (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D30 N30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP11022 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: Capital Shares and Income Inequality: Evidence from the Long Run (2018)
Working Paper: Capital shares and income inequality: Evidence from the long run (2016)
Working Paper: Capital Shares and Income inequality: Evidence from the Long Run (2015)
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:cpr:ceprdp:11022

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP11022

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().