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The Concentration Of Personal Wealth In America, 1969

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  • James D. Smith

Abstract

This essay focuses on the problems of estimating the share of America's personal wealth in the hands of affluent individuals by a technique known as the estate multiplier method. Rather than exploring these problems in an empirical vacuum, we first present some results from the most recent estimates of the distribution of U.S. personal wealth.1 The estimates—for the year 1969—are then used as a basis for gauging the sensitivity of estate multiplier estimates to variations in approach. Section I presents new empirical findings dealing with the asset holdings of top wealth‐holders and the super rich, and with the shares of specific assets owned by them. Also presented is information about the sex and marital status of the super rich. Section II discusses various technical aspects of the estate multiplier as applied to federal estate tax returns. The main concern is with the weighting process, but attention is paid to the fact that estate tax returns filed in a given year are not for decedents who died in that year or any single year, and to the problems of adjusting the face value of life insurance to cash surrender value.

Suggested Citation

  • James D. Smith, 1974. "The Concentration Of Personal Wealth In America, 1969," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 20(2), pages 143-180, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:20:y:1974:i:2:p:143-180
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4991.1974.tb00915.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Edward N. Wolff, 1980. "Estimates of the 1969 Size Distribution of Household Wealth in the U.S. from a Synthetic Data Base," NBER Chapters, in: Modeling the Distribution and Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth, pages 223-272, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Alan S. Blinder & Irving Kristol & Wilbur J. Cohen, 1980. "The Level and Distribution of Economic Well-Being," NBER Chapters, in: The American Economy in Transition, pages 415-500, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. James B. Davies & Livio Di Matteo, 2021. "Long Run Canadian Wealth Inequality in International Context," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(1), pages 134-164, March.
    4. Mark Clifford Schechter, 1976. "The Legal Cost of Dying Rich," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 20(2), pages 69-73, October.
    5. James D. Smith, 1980. "Introduction to "Modeling the Distribution and Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth"," NBER Chapters, in: Modeling the Distribution and Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth, pages 1-8, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. John Muellbauer, 2019. "The Political Economy of Price Indices," Cyprus Economic Policy Review, University of Cyprus, Economics Research Centre, vol. 13(1), pages 35-56, June.
    7. Hager, Sandy Brian, 2013. "America's Real 'Debt Dilemma'," Review of Capital as Power, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism, vol. 1(1), pages 41-62.
    8. Thilo N. H. Albers & Charlotte Bartels & Moritz Schularick, 2020. "The Distribution of Wealth in Germany, 1895-2018," ECONtribute Policy Brief Series 001, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    9. Daniel Radner, 1989. "The Wealth of the Aged and Nonaged, 1984," NBER Chapters, in: The Measurement of Saving, Investment, and Wealth, pages 645-688, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Hager, Sandy Brian, 2016. "Public Debt, Inequality and Power. The Making of a Modern Debt State," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 157976, December.

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