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The household wealth distribution in Spain: The role of housing and financial wealth

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  • Francisco Azpitarte

    (Universidad de Vigo)

Abstract

We analyse the distribution of household wealth in Spain using the first wave of the Spanish Survey of Household Finances, conducted by the Bank of Spain in 2002. We study the distribution of the different wealth components and, using inequality decomposition techniques, we assess the contribution of each element to overall wealth inequality. We find that wealth is more unequally distributed than income, while housing wealth is much more evenly distributed than financial wealth. Moreover, we identify two groups of wealth components: one disequalizing group, which includes financial wealth, whose value and portfolio share increase with household wealth; and a second more equalizing one, including housing wealth, whose value increases with wealth, but their share in the portfolio does not. Finally, we show that differences between age groups do not explain why wealth is much more unequally distributed than income. Instead, business and home ownership are factors that clearly contribute to explain this feature.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco Azpitarte, 2010. "The household wealth distribution in Spain: The role of housing and financial wealth," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 194(3), pages 65-90, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:hpe:journl:y:2010:v:194:i:3:p:65-90
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Clara Martínez Toledano, 2017. "House Price Cycles, Wealth Inequality and Portfolio Reshuffling," World Inequality Lab Working Papers halshs-02797549, HAL.
    2. Vassiliki Koutsogeorgopoulou & Manos Matsaganis & Chrysa Leventi & Jan-David Schneider, 2014. "Fairly Sharing the Social Impact of the Crisis in Greece," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1106, OECD Publishing.
    3. Stefan Humer & Mathias Moser & Matthias Schnetzer, 2015. "Socioeconomic structures of the Austrian wealth distribution," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 42(2), pages 269-289, May.
    4. Stefan Bach & Andreas Thiemann & Aline Zucco, 2015. "The Top Tail of the Wealth Distribution in Germany, France, Spain, and Greece," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1502, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Bach, Stefan & Thiemann, Andreas & Zucco, Aline, 2019. "Looking for the missing rich: tracing the top tail of the wealth distribution," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(6), pages 1234-1258.
    6. Ihle, Dorothee & Siebert-Meyerhoff, Andrea, 2017. "The older, the richer? A decomposition of wealth inequality by age subgroups," CAWM Discussion Papers 97, University of Münster, Münster Center for Economic Policy (MEP).
    7. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Cristina Borra, 2018. "Emerging wealth disparities after the storm: Evidence from Spain," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1119-1149, December.
    8. Orsetta Causa & Nicolas Woloszko & David Leite, 2020. "Housing, Wealth Accumulation and Wealth Distribution: Evidence and Stylized Facts," LWS Working papers 30, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    9. Clara Martínez Toledano, 2017. "House Price Cycles, Wealth Inequality and Portfolio Reshuffling," Working Papers halshs-02797549, HAL.
    10. Clara Martínez Toledano, 2017. "House Price Cycles, Wealth Inequality and Portfolio Reshuffling," PSE Working Papers halshs-02797549, HAL.
    11. Kacper Grejcz & Zbigniew Żółkiewski, 2017. "Household wealth in Poland: the results of a new survey of household finance," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 48(3), pages 295-326.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wealth; income; distribution; inequality decomposition.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

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