Measuring long-run wealth inequality. Empirical results for Norway 1912-2019

Rolf Aaberge, Jørgen Modalsli () and Edda Solbakken ()
Additional contact information
Edda Solbakken: Statistics Norway, http://www.ssb.no/en/forskning/ansatte

Discussion Papers from Statistics Norway, Research Department

Abstract: This paper introduces a framework for estimating long-run series of measures of overall inequality and top wealth shares when data consist of a combination of historical tabulations and modern administrative registers of taxable wealth. The proposed framework is applicable when historical wealth tabulations as a minimum provide information on bracket boundaries and the proportion of tax units for each of the wealth brackets. The framework has been used to produce evidence on wealth inequality in Norway from 1912 to 2019. The empirical results show that wealth inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient was very high at the beginning of the twentieth century, fell during the post-war period and has increased substantially since the 1980s. The rise in wealth inequality over the recent four decades is driven by a rise in the wealth share of the top 1 per cent, while equalization among the bottom 99 per cent accounted for 70 percent of the reduction in wealth inequality from the early 1950s to the late 1960s.

Keywords: Distribution of wealth; long-run inequality; the Gini coefficient; wealth taxation; Norway (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 H29 N34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 101 pages
Date: 2025-10
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.ssb.no/en/inntekt-og-forbruk/inntekt-o ... cdca5e5af/DP1028.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:ssb:dispap:1028

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://www.ssb.no/e ... for-norway-1912-2019

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Statistics Norway, Research Department P.O.Box 8131 Dep, N-0033 Oslo, Norway. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by L Maasø ().