IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nsr/niesrd/552.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Exploring Alternative Data Sources for Household Wealth Statistics

Author

Listed:
  • Arnab Bhattacharjee
  • Larissa Marioni
  • Max Mosley
  • Adrian Pabst

Abstract

This paper aims to explore and assess alternative data sources for wealth in order to improve existing pension wealth statistics. We find that, notwithstanding some limitations, the Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS) is currently the most comprehensive source. Then, we conduct a comparative analysis of WAS against alternative data sources, including potential new sources. Our findings suggest that, despite WAS being somewhat good at capturing variations in pension wealth across the population, it appears deficient in capturing well pension uptake for the lower three deciles. Together, pension wealth at the top end is also underreported. We recommend using alternative sources of information, such as a one-time survey and/or using a microsimulation approach to complement the available data.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnab Bhattacharjee & Larissa Marioni & Max Mosley & Adrian Pabst, 2024. "Exploring Alternative Data Sources for Household Wealth Statistics," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 552, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:nsr:niesrd:552
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.niesr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/DP-552-Exploring-Alternative-Data-Sources-for-Household-Wealth-Statistics.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marta Lachowska & Michał Myck, 2018. "The Effect of Public Pension Wealth on Saving and Expenditure," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 284-308, August.
    2. Laurent Bach & Laurent E. Calvet & Paolo Sodini, 2020. "Rich Pickings? Risk, Return, and Skill in Household Wealth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2703-2747, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andersen, Torben M. & Bhattacharya, Joydeep & Grodecka-Messi, Anna & Mann, Katja, 2024. "Pension reform and wealth inequality: Theory and evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    2. Arun Advani & George Bangham & Jack Leslie, 2021. "The UK's wealth distribution and characteristics of high‐wealth households," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(3-4), pages 397-430, September.
    3. Zhao, Weimin & Chen, Na, 2024. "Does old-age security promote rural residents' consumption? A decomposition based on contribution and replacement rates," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 817-830.
    4. Thilo N H Albers & Charlotte Bartels & Moritz Schularick, 2022. "Wealth and its Distribution in Germany, 1895-2018," Working Papers halshs-03828863, HAL.
    5. Karl Schulz, 2021. "Redistribution of Return Inequality," CESifo Working Paper Series 8996, CESifo.
    6. Aart Gerritsen & Bas Jacobs & Kevin Spiritus & Alexandra V Rusu, 2025. "Optimal Taxation of Capital Income with Heterogeneous Rates of Return," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 135(665), pages 180-211.
    7. An, Li & Lou, Dong & Shi, Donghui, 2022. "Wealth redistribution in bubbles and crashes," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 134-153.
    8. Baker, Scott R. & Johnson, Stephanie & Kueng, Lorenz, 2024. "Financial returns to household inventory management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    9. Herradi, Mehdi El & Leroy, Aurélien, 2022. "The rich, poor, and middle class: Banking crises and income distribution," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    10. Sujoy Mukerji & Han N. Ozsoylev & Jean‐Marc Tallon, 2023. "Trading Ambiguity: A Tale Of Two Heterogeneities," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 64(3), pages 1127-1164, August.
    11. Etgeton, Stefan & Fischer, Björn & Ye, Han, 2023. "The effect of increasing retirement age on households’ savings and consumption expenditure," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    12. Matthew Smith & Owen Zidar & Eric Zwick, 2020. "Top Wealth in America: New Estimates and Implications for Taxing the Rich," Working Papers 264, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    13. Michał Myck & Mateusz Najsztub, 2020. "Implications of the Polish 1999 administrative reform for regional socio‐economic development," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 559-579, October.
    14. repec:hal:journl:hal-03219581 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Lukas Menkhoff & Jannis Westermann, 2024. "Determinants of Stock Market Participation," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2078, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    16. Thomas Blanchet, 2022. "Uncovering the Dynamics of the Wealth Distribution," Working Papers hal-03865295, HAL.
    17. José Luis Iparraguirre, 2020. "Economics and Ageing," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-030-29019-1, June.
    18. Bastani, Spencer & Karlsson, Kristina & Waldenström, Daniel, 2023. "The Different Returns to Cognitive Ability in the Labor and Capital Markets," Working Paper Series 1459, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    19. Buss, Adrian & Vilkov, Grigory & Uppal, Raman, 2020. "Investor Sophistication and Portfolio Dynamics," CEPR Discussion Papers 15116, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Guiling Zhao & Yunpeng Fu & Deyu Zhou, 2024. "Study on the Impact of China’s Pension Insurance System on the Savings Rate of Urban Residents Based on the Preventive Saving Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-23, October.
    21. Arrigoni, Simone, 2024. "Who gets the flow? Financial globalisation and wealth inequality," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    pension wealth; wealth distribution; inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nsr:niesrd:552. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Library & Information Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/niesruk.html .

    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.