Hidden wealth

Neil Cummins

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Sharp declines in wealth-concentration occurred across Europe and the US during the 20th century. But this stylized fact is based on declared wealth. It is possible that today the richest are not less rich but rather that they are hiding much of their wealth. This paper proposes a method to measure this hidden wealth, in any form. In England, 1920-1992, elites are concealing 20-32% of their wealth. Among dynasties, hidden wealth, independent of declared wealth, predicts appearance in the Offshore Leaks Database of 2013-6, house values in 1999, and Oxbridge attendance, 1990-2016. Accounting for hidden wealth eliminates one-third of the observed decline of top 10% wealth-share over the past century

Keywords: hidden wealth; inequality; economic history; big data; tax evasion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 H26 N00 N33 N34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2019-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-his, nep-iue and nep-ore
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:102830

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