scholarly journals Price-Level Changes and the Redistribution of Nominal Wealth across the Euro Area

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 871-906 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Adam ◽  
Junyi Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Euro Area ◽  
Price Level ◽  
Household Finance ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Considerable Heterogeneity ◽  
Wealth Redistribution ◽  
High Inflation ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Consumption Survey

Abstract We show that unexpected price-level movements generate sizable wealth redistribution in the Euro Area (EA), using sectoral accounts and newly available data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. The EA as a whole is a net loser of unexpected price-level decreases, with Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Spain losing most in per capita terms, and Belgium and Malta being net winners. Governments are net losers of deflation, while the household (HH) sector is a net winner in the EA as a whole. HHs in Belgium, Ireland, Malta, and Germany experience the biggest per capita gains, while HHs in Finland and Spain turn out to be net losers. Considerable heterogeneity exists also within the HH sector: relatively young middle class HHs are net losers of deflation, while older and richer HHs are winners. As a result, wealth inequality in the EA increases with unexpected deflation, although in some countries (Austria, Germany, and Malta) inequality decreases due to the presence of relatively few young borrowing HHs. We document that HHs’ inflation exposure varies systematically across countries, with HHs in high-inflation EA countries holding systematically lower nominal exposures.

scholarly journals How Do Households Allocate Their Assets? Stylised Facts from the Eurosystem Household Finance and Consumption Survey

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc Arrondel ◽  
Laura Bartiloro ◽  
Pirmin Fessler ◽  
Peter Lindner ◽  
Thomas Y. Mathh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Household Finance ◽  
Consumption Survey

Disparate Recoveries: Wealth, Race, and the Working Class after the Great Recession

2021 ◽  
Vol 695 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-192
Author(s):  
Fenaba R. Addo ◽  
William A. Darity
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Net Worth ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
White Working Class ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

What does it mean to be working class in a society of extreme racial wealth inequality? Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, we investigate the wealth holdings of Black, Latinx, and white working-class households during the post–Great Recession (pre–COVID-19) period that spanned 2010 to 2019. We then explore the relationship between working-class and middle-class attainment using a wealth-based metric. We find that, in terms of their net worth, fewer Black working-class households benefitted from the economic recovery than white working-class households. Among white households, the working class saw the greatest increase in wealth in both absolute and relative terms. Working-class households were less likely to be middle class as defined by their wealth holdings, and Black and Latinx households were also less likely to be middle class. For Black households, racial identity is a stronger predictor of wealth attainment than occupational sector.

Interval Type-Two Fuzzy Logic for Quantitatively Defining Imprecise Linguistic Terms in Politics and Public Policy

2015 ◽  
pp. 643-651
Author(s):  
Ashu M. G. Solo
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Fuzzy Logic ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Fuzzy Sets ◽  
Linguistic Terms ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
High Inflation ◽  
Interval Type

The previous chapter describes the use of type-one fuzzy logic for quantitatively defining imprecise linguistic terms in politics and public policy. This chapter shows the use of interval type-two fuzzy logic for this purpose and the advantages and disadvantages of using interval type-two fuzzy logic instead of type-one fuzzy logic for this purpose. Interval type-two fuzzy sets can be used to properly ask and answer queries about quantitatively defining imprecise linguistic terms in politics and public policy like “rich,” “middle class,” “poor,” “low inflation,” “medium inflation,” and “high inflation.” Imprecise terms like these in natural languages should be considered to have “qualitative definitions,” “quantitative definitions,” “crisp quantitative definitions,” “fuzzy quantitative definitions,” “type-one fuzzy quantitative definitions,” and “interval type-two fuzzy quantitative definitions.”

The Household Finance and Consumption Survey and the recipe to face statistical challenges

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-237
Author(s):  
Carlos Sanchez Munoz
Keyword(s):  
Household Finance ◽  
Consumption Survey

But what about that nice house you own? The impact of asset tests in minimum income schemes in Europe: An empirical exploration

2020 ◽  
pp. 095892872097013
Author(s):  
Sarah Marchal ◽  
Sarah Kuypers ◽  
Ive Marx ◽  
Gerlinde Verbist
Keyword(s):  
Household Finance ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Microsimulation Model ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Consumption Survey ◽  
European Welfare States

Means-tested transfer schemes in Europe and elsewhere tend to include not only income tests but also asset tests of various sorts. The role of asset tests in minimum income protection provisions has been extensively researched in the Anglo-Saxon context. Far fewer authors have assessed the role of asset tests on social policy in a continental European context. Although asset tests may be useful in singling out the more deserving of the poor, we know relatively little of their actual impact on eligibility and social outcomes in European welfare states. This paper looks at the prevalence and design of asset tests in European minimum income protection schemes. We distinguish between two main types of asset tests: outright disqualification when assets reach a certain value, versus a more gradual tapering at a fictional rate of return. We then analyse in greater detail how asset tests in Belgium and Germany, as representatives of these two types, affect minimum income protection eligibility and poverty outcomes. We use the EUROMOD microsimulation model on the Household Finance and Consumption Survey data in order to assess the effects of asset tests. This survey was explicitly designed to more realistically reflect assets and capital incomes.

scholarly journals Endogenous Partial Insurance and Inequality

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 2270-2314
Author(s):  
Eric Mengus ◽  
Roberto Pancrazi
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rate ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Consumption Smoothing ◽  
Insurance Market ◽  
Asset Markets ◽  
Asset Accumulation ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Participation Costs ◽  
Partial Insurance

Abstract In this paper, we propose a model of endogenous partial insurance and we investigate its implications for macroeconomic outcomes, such as wealth inequality, asset accumulation, interest rate, and consumption smoothing. To this end, we include participation costs to state-contingent asset markets into an otherwise standard Aiyagari (1994) model. We highlight the resulting nonmonotonic relationship between wealth and insurance-market participation when insurance is costly. Poor households remain uninsured, middle-class households participate in the insurance market, whereas rich households decide to self-insure by only purchasing risk-free assets. After theoretically characterizing the endogenous partial insurance equilibrium, we quantify its effect, emphasizing the roles of a participation channel and an interest rate channel.

scholarly journals The Impact of Unconventional Monetary Policy on Gendered Wealth Inequality

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Young
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Asset Prices ◽  
Household Finance ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Unconventional Monetary Policy ◽  
Distributional Effects ◽  
Monetary Policies ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Central Bankers

Unconventional monetary policy was implemented as a result of the financial crisis and resulted in rising asset prices in the stock markets. While the increase in asset prices is not exclusively triggered by unconventional monetary policy, central bankers accept that unconventional monetary policy has resulted in distributional effects on wealth, and that these are not negligible. What is missing are studies analyzing whether these non-standard monetary policies have different distributional effects on women and men. The intent of the paper is to interrogate whether unconventional monetary policy of central banks has a gender bias that operates in favor of men as gender and against women as gender. Relying on insights from feminist economics, the paper uses the results of the ECB Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) of 62,000 household across 15 euro-area countries. While the results are tentative, they show an asymmetric distributional gendered impact. Since the rich own more assets than the poor, and since monetary easing works in part by raising asset prices, these unconventional policies may unintentionally benefit the wealthier quintile (on average more male) at the expense of the poorer strata of society (on average more female).

Key methodological issues in the research on household wealth

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 34-47
Author(s):  
Marcin Wroński
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Household Finance ◽  
Household Wealth ◽  
Wealth Accumulation ◽  
Expert Committee ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Adequate Representation ◽  
Consumption Survey

The interest of economists and policy makers in collecting data on house-hold wealth has been growing over the last decade (from the beginning of financial crisis in 2008). It has two fundamental reasons: wealth accumulation and growing inequalities as well as formulation of better public policies. The aim of the article is to discuss key methodological issues in the research on household wealth, to present solutions devel-oped by the OECD expert committee applied in the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) and to identify areas that require further consideration. Since 2010 signifi-cant progress has been achieved in the measurement of private wealth. Further research on the adequate representation of the richest households in the research sample and concepts of wealth broader than private wealth should be encouraged.

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