Estimating the distribution of household wealth in South Africa

Aroop Chatterjee, Léo Czajka and Amory Gethin

No wp-2020-45, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: This paper estimates the distribution of personal wealth in South Africa by combining tax microdata, household surveys, and macroeconomic balance sheet statistics. We systematically compare estimates of the wealth distribution obtained by direct measurement of net worth, rescaling of reported wealth to balance sheet totals, and capitalization of income flows. We document major inconsistencies between available data sources, in particular regarding the measurement of dividends, corporate assets, and wealth held through trusts.

Keywords: Administrative data; Households balance sheets; income capitalization; Micro-macro gap; National accounts; Wealth distribution; Wealth surveys; capital incomes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc and nep-mac
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Estimating the Distribution of Household Wealth in South Africa (2020)
Working Paper: Estimating the Distribution of Household Wealth in South Africa (2020)
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