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Inequality among the Wealthy

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  • Frank A Cowell

Abstract

Using the evidence from the Luxembourg Wealth Study it appears that the distribution of wealth in the UK is considerably less than in Canada, the US or Sweden. But does this result come from an underestimate of inequality among the wealthy and of the wealth differential between the rich and the rest? Using a Pareto model for the upper tail of the distribution we can see that the inequality of comparisons of the UK with the other countries is indeed robust.

Suggested Citation

  • Frank A Cowell, 2011. "Inequality among the Wealthy," CASE Papers case150, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:sticas:case150
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    File URL: https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cp/CASEpaper150.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Klass, Oren S. & Biham, Ofer & Levy, Moshe & Malcai, Ofer & Solomon, Sorin, 2006. "The Forbes 400 and the Pareto wealth distribution," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 290-295, February.
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    6. Eva Sierminska & Andrea Brandolini & Timothy Smeeding, 2006. "The Luxembourg Wealth Study – A cross-country comparable database for household wealth research," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 4(3), pages 375-383, December.
    7. Lee Soltow, 1975. "The Wealth, Income, and Social Class of Men in Large Northern Cities of the United States in 1860," NBER Chapters, in: The Personal Distribution of Income and Wealth, pages 231-276, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mariacristina De Nardi & Fella Giulio & Fang Yang, 2016. "Piketty’s Book and Macro Models of Wealth Inequality," Chicago Fed Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    2. Paul Eckerstorfer & Johannes Halak & Jakob Kapeller & Bernhard Schütz & Florian Springholz & Rafael Wildauer, 2014. "Die Vermögensverteilung in Österreich und das Aufkommenspotenzial einer Vermögenssteuer," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 40(1), pages 63-81.
    3. Andreas Peichl & Nico Pestel, 2013. "Multidimensional affluence: theory and applications to Germany and the US," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(32), pages 4591-4601, November.
    4. Paul Eckerstorfer & Johannes Halak & Jakob Kapeller & Bernhard Schütz & Florian Springholz & Rafael Wildauer, 2016. "Correcting for the Missing Rich: An Application to Wealth Survey Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62(4), pages 605-627, December.
    5. Michal Brzezinski, 2011. "Variance Estimation for Richness Measures," LWS Working papers 11, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. F. Clementi & M. Gallegati & G. Kaniadakis, 2012. "A generalized statistical model for the size distribution of wealth," Papers 1209.4787, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2012.
    7. Sofie R. Waltl & Robin Chakraborty, 2022. "Missing the wealthy in the HFCS: micro problems with macro implications," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(1), pages 169-203, March.
    8. Eckerstorfer, Paul & Halak, Johannes & Kapeller, Jakob & Schütz, Bernhard & Springholz, Florian & Wildauer, Rafael, 2014. "Vermögen in Österreich," Greenwich Papers in Political Economy 23617, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre.
    9. Paul Eckerstorfer & Johannes Halak & Jakob Kapeller & Bernhard Schütz & Florian Springholz & Rafael Wildauer, 2014. "Correcting wealth survey data for the missing rich: The case of Austria," Economics working papers 2014-01, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    10. Jan Schulz & Mishael Milaković, 2023. "How Wealthy are the Rich?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(1), pages 100-123, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    wealth distribution;

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

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