IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/iosjes/0051.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring wealth and wealth inequality: Comparing two U.S. surveys

Author

Listed:
  • Pfeffer, Fabian T.

    (University of Michigan)

  • Schoeni, Robert F.

    (University of Michigan)

  • Kennickell, Arthur

    (Federal Reserve System)

  • Andreski, Patricia

    (University of Michigan)

Abstract

Household wealth and its distribution are topics of broad public debate and increasing scholarly interest. We compare the relative strength of two of the main data sources used in research on the wealth holdings of U.S. households, the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), by providing a description and explanation of differences in the level and distribution of wealth captured in these two surveys. We identify the factors that account for differences in average net worth but also show that estimates of net worth are similar throughout most of the distribution. Median net worth in the SCF is 6% higher than in the PSID and the largest differences between the two surveys are concentrated in the 1-2 percent wealthiest households, leading to a different view of wealth concentration at the very top but similar results for wealth inequality across most of the distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Pfeffer, Fabian T. & Schoeni, Robert F. & Kennickell, Arthur & Andreski, Patricia, 2016. "Measuring wealth and wealth inequality: Comparing two U.S. surveys," Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, IOS Press, issue 2, pages 103-120.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:iosjes:0051
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wealth; inequality; measurement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:iosjes:0051. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Saskia van Wijngaarden (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.iospress.nl/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.