Using Rich Lists to Study the Super-Rich and Top Wealth Inequality: Insights from Switzerland

Enea Baselgia and Martínez, Isabel Z.
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Isabel Z. Martínez

No 18891, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We present a new data set we built based on Swiss rich lists going back to 1989. We show, among other things, that 60% of the super-rich are heirs—a fraction twice as large as in the US—and that wealth mobility at the very top has declined significantly. We find that top 0.01% wealth shares are higher than previous estimates based on wealth tax statistics suggest. At the same time, we argue that rich list data lead to overestimating wealth inequality. While rich lists are valuable to study the super-rich, we recommend to use reported wealth figures with caution.

JEL-codes: C81 D31 D64 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18891 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Using Rich Lists to Study the Super-Rich and Top Wealth Inequality: Insights from Switzerland (2024)
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:18891

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18891

Access Statistics for this paper

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