A Wealth of Information: Augmenting the Survey of Consumer Finances to Characterize the Full U.S. Wealth Distribution

Jesse Bricker, Sarena Goodman, Alice Henriques Volz and Kevin B. Moore
Additional contact information
Jesse Bricker: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/jesse-bricker.htm
Sarena Goodman: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/sarena-f-goodman.htm
Alice Henriques Volz: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/alice-henriques-volz.htm
Kevin B. Moore: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/kevin-b-moore.htm

No 2021-053, Finance and Economics Discussion Series from Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)

Abstract: We use the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) to advance U.S. wealth analysis along several dimensions. We develop a comprehensive framework that modifies the SCF to recover the wealth distribution over families, tax units, and individuals from 1989 to 2019. We show that, by ignoring unequal holdings within families, existing estimates considerably understate U.S. inequality across individuals. We find wealth concentration rose through the recent economic recovery, which differs from leading models that capitalize income into wealth even after aligning conceptual differences. We illustrate that private businesses are a growing impediment to accurately modeling wealth from income.

Keywords: Wealth measurement; Intra-household allocation; Wealth distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 D31 H23 J11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 p.
Date: 2021-08-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-isf
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2021-53

DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2021.053

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