Financial and Total Wealth Inequality with Declining Interest Rates

Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, Dan Greenwald, Matteo Leombroni and Hanno Lustig

No 16081, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Financial wealth inequality and long-term real interest rates track each other closely over the post-war period. Faced with unanticipated lower real rates, households which rely more on financial wealth must see large capital gains to afford the consumption that they planned before the decline in rates. Lower rates beget higher financial wealth inequality. Inequality in total wealth, the sum of financial and human wealth and the relevant concept for household welfare, rises much less than financial wealth inequality and even declines at the top of the wealth distribution. A standard incomplete markets model reproduces the observed increase in financial wealth inequality in response to a decline in real interest rates because high financial-wealth households have a financial portfolio with high duration.

Keywords: Wealth inequality; Interest rates; Secular stagnation; Human wealth; Duration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E21 E25 E44 G12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-04
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Working Paper: Financial and Total Wealth Inequality with Declining Interest Rates (2021)
Working Paper: Financial and Total Wealth Inequality with Declining Interest Rates (2021)
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