The Top Tail of the Wealth Distribution in Germany, France, Spain, and Greece

Stefan Bach (), Andreas Thiemann () and Aline Zucco

No 1502, Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: We analyze the top tail of the wealth distribution in Germany, France, Spain, and Greece based on the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS). Since top wealth is likely to be underrepresented in household surveys we integrate the big fortunes from rich lists, estimate a Pareto distribution, and impute the missing rich. Instead of the Forbes list we mainly rely on national rich lists since they represent a broader base for the big fortunes. As a result, the top percentile share of household wealth in Germany jumps up from 24 percent in the HFCS alone to 33 percent after top wealth imputation. For France and Spain we find only a small effect of the imputation since rich households are better captured in the survey. The results for Greece are ambiguous since the data do not show clear concentration patterns.

Keywords: Wealth distribution; missing rich; Pareto distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C46 C81 D31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 p.
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-pbe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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Working Paper: The Top Tail of the Wealth Distribution in Germany, France, Spain, and Greece (2015)
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