The Saving Glut of the Rich

Atif Mian, Ludwig Straub and Amir Sufi

No 26941, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper develops a new unveiling methodology to trace distributional household saving through the financial system and applies it to tax records from 1963 to 2019. Since the 1980s, saving by the top 1% has surged, creating a saving glut of the rich comparable in scale to the global saving glut and equally influential in driving the demand for safe assets. Unveiling the financial sector reveals that this glut financed much of the rise in middle-class borrowing before 2008 and the expansion of federal debt thereafter. Our framework helps illustrate how rising inequality reshapes financial intermediation and debt dynamics.

JEL-codes: D31 E21 E44 G51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-mac and nep-pke
Note: CF EFG ME
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

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Working Paper: The Saving Glut of the Rich (2021)
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