scholarly journals On the Distribution of Estates and the Distribution of Wealth: Evidence from the Dead

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonatan Berman ◽  
Salvatore Morelli
Keyword(s):  
Wealth Distribution ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Multiplier Method ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
Wealth Concentration ◽  
The Dead

Detailed information about the distribution of estates left at death has commonly served as the basis for the estimation of wealth distributions among the living via the mortality multiplier method. The application of detailed mortality rates by demographics and other determinants of mortality is crucial for obtaining an unbiased representation of the wealth distribution of the living. Yet, in this paper we suggest that a simplified mortality multiplier method, derived using average mortality rates and aggregate tabulations by estate size, may be sufficient to derive compelling estimates of wealth concentration. We show that the application of homogeneous multipliers leads to estimates that are close in level and trend to the concentration of wealth derived in the existing literature with the detailed mortality multiplier method for a variety of countries. The use of mortality rates graduated by estate size does not confute this finding. We also derive the general formal conditions for the similarity between the distributions of wealth of the living and estates at death and discuss the main caveats. These findings may unlock a wide array of aggregate estate tabulations, previously thought to be unusable, for estimating historical trends of wealth concentration. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper Series)

scholarly journals Epidemics, Inequality and Poverty in Preindustrial and Early Industrial Times

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Alfani
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Black Death ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Inequality In Health

Recent research has explored the distributive consequences of major historical epidemics, and the current crisis triggered by Covid-19 prompts us to look at the past for insights about how pandemics can affect inequalities in income, wealth, and health. The fourteenth-century Black Death, which is usually believed to have led to a significant reduction in economic inequality, has attracted the greatest attention. However, the picture becomes much more complex if other epidemics are considered. This article covers the worst epidemics of preindustrial times, from Justinian’s Plague of 540-41 to the last great European plagues of the seventeenth century, as well as the cholera waves of the nineteenth. It shows how the distributive outcomes of lethal epidemics do not only depend upon mortality rates, but are mediated by a range of factors, chief among them the institutional framework in place at the onset of each crisis. It then explores how past epidemics affected poverty, arguing that highly lethal epidemics could reduce its prevalence through two deeply different mechanisms: redistribution towards the poor, or extermination of the poor. It concludes by recalling the historical connection between the progressive weakening and spacing in time of lethal epidemics and improvements in life expectancy, and by discussing how epidemics affected inequality in health and living standards. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper Series)

scholarly journals The Wage Curve Across the Wealth Distribution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Iacono ◽  
Marco Ranaldi
Keyword(s):  
Unemployment Rate ◽  
Wealth Distribution ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Negative Slope ◽  
Wage Curve ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
Norwegian Population ◽  
The Relationship

This paper studies the relationship between wage and unemployment rate across the wealth distribution. Using microdata from Norway covering the entire Norwegian population of residents between 2000 and 2015, we introduce four novel findings on this relationship. First, the share of unemployed individuals belonging to the bottom decile of the gross wealth distribution is tenfold larger than the share belonging to the top decile (34% and 3.2%). Second, the former moves in a specular manner to the latter. Third, the negative slope of the wage curve is confirmed. Fourth, the wage-to-unemployment ratio increases monotonically with gross wealth, and decreases monotonically with net wealth for negative values of net wealth. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper)

scholarly journals Real Urban Wage in an Agricultural Economy Without Landless Farmers: Serbia 1862-1910

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boško Mijatović ◽  
Branko Milanovic
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Agricultural Economy ◽  
Modest Increase ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
Agricultural Societies ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
Skilled And Unskilled Workers

The paper presents the first estimate of the welfare ratio for Serbia using the 19th and early 20th century data on wages of skilled and unskilled workers (including the part paid in kind) and prices of goods that enter into “subsistence” and “respectability” consumption baskets. It finds a stagnation of unskilled wage close to the welfare ratio of 1, and a modest increase in skilled wage. The paper introduces several adjustments to conventional methodology in order to make it more relevant for predominantly agricultural societies. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper)

Non-Maxwellian kinetic equations modeling the dynamics of wealth distribution

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (04) ◽  
pp. 685-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Furioli ◽  
Ada Pulvirenti ◽  
Elide Terraneo ◽  
Giuseppe Toscani
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Wealth Distribution ◽  
Kinetic Equations ◽  
Planck Equation ◽  
Logarithmic Sobolev Inequality ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Fokker Planck Equations ◽  
Fokker Planck

We introduce a class of new one-dimensional linear Fokker–Planck-type equations describing the dynamics of the distribution of wealth in a multi-agent society. The equations are obtained, via a standard limiting procedure, by introducing an economically relevant variant to the kinetic model introduced in 2005 by Cordier, Pareschi and Toscani according to previous studies by Bouchaud and Mézard. The steady state of wealth predicted by these new Fokker–Planck equations remains unchanged with respect to the steady state of the original Fokker–Planck equation. However, unlike the original equation, it is proven by a new logarithmic Sobolev inequality with weight and classical entropy methods that the solution converges exponentially fast to equilibrium.

scholarly journals Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data *

2016 ◽  
Vol 131 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Saez ◽  
Gabriel Zucman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Balance Sheets ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Wealth Concentration ◽  
Top Incomes ◽  
Tax Returns

Abstract This paper combines income tax returns with macroeconomic household balance sheets to estimate the distribution of wealth in the United States since 1913. We estimate wealth by capitalizing the incomes reported by individual taxpayers, accounting for assets that do not generate taxable income. We successfully test our capitalization method in three micro datasets where we can observe both income and wealth: the Survey of Consumer Finance, linked estate and income tax returns, and foundations’ tax records. We find that wealth concentration was high in the beginning of the twentieth century, fell from 1929 to 1978, and has continuously increased since then. The top 0.1% wealth share has risen from 7% in 1978 to 22% in 2012, a level almost as high as in 1929. Top wealth-holders are younger today than in the 1960s and earn a higher fraction of the economy’s labor income. The bottom 90% wealth share first increased up to the mid-1980s and then steadily declined. The increase in wealth inequality in recent decades is due to the upsurge of top incomes combined with an increase in saving rate inequality. We explain how our findings can be reconciled with Survey of Consumer Finances and estate tax data.

Egalitarianism, Inequality, and Age: The Rural North in 1860

1981 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Atack ◽  
Fred Bateman
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Age Structure ◽  
Wealth Distribution ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
Egalitarian Society ◽  
Heads Of Household ◽  
Life Cycle Pattern

Little is known about the distribution of wealth in the allegedly egalitarian society of the rural North on the eve of the Civil War. This paper investigates the role of the age structure of the heads of household and a life-cycle pattern of accumulation in determining the wealth distribution within that society and among the various groups that comprised it. The results suggest a need for caution in making cross-group or inter-temporal comparisons in wealth distributions without taking account of such factors.

scholarly journals Some Major Causes of Current Economic Crises and Leadership Strategies

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asım Şen
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Wealth Distribution ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Leadership Strategies ◽  
Economic Crises ◽  
The People ◽  
Education And Employment ◽  
Sustainable Economic Growth

This paper argues that economic inequality is one of the major causes of the current economic crises and provides some appropriate leadership strategies for solving them. Inequality is defined as unequal opportunities for economical activities among the people of a nation and among the nations of the world. The major cause of most current economic crises is the income and wealth inequality which are generated mainly by the economic growth. Leaders in the past and currently could not utilize appropriate strategies to solve the inequality problems and consequently the economic crisis grew and reached the current levels. In order to solve the current economic crises it is necessary to eliminate the economic inequality problems and establish fair and sustainable economic growth. The leadership strategies play crucial role for this process. These strategies included in this paper are establishing the local and global shared vision for all; balancing the income and wealth distribution; providing the equal opportunities for education and employment; sharing the production and consumption; and maintaining the fair and sustainable globalization and economic growth.

scholarly journals Unequal Unification? Income Inequality and Unification in 19th Century Italy and Germany

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Emanuel Erfurth
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
German States ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Comprehensive Study

This research provides a comprehensive study of the linkages between unification and related policy choices on income inequality by examining the cases of Italy and Germany in the context of 19th century unification. To conduct this analysis, the study puts forward estimates of income inequality for pre-unification German states using social tables, compiled using primary data, some of which have thus far been unexplored in economic research. The findings suggest that differences in inequality between regions were more pronounced in Italy than in Germany. In seeking explanations for these trends, the study explores linkages between institutional structures, governance frameworks and inequality, connecting the research on federalism with the literature on inequality extraction. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper)

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