A Wealth of Information: Augmenting the Survey of Consumer Finances to Characterize the Full U.S. Wealth Distribution

We use the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) to advance U.S. wealth analysis along several dimensions. We develop a comprehensive framework that modifies the SCF to recover the wealth distribution over families, tax units, and individuals from 1989 to 2019. We show that, by ignoring unequal holdings within families, existing estimates considerably understate U.S. inequality across individuals. We find wealth concentration rose through the recent economic recovery, which differs from leading models that capitalize income into wealth even after aligning conceptual differences. We illustrate that private businesses are a growing impediment to accurately modeling wealth from income.

Download Full-text

Wealth concentration in the U.S. after augmenting the upper tail of the survey of consumer finances

Economics Letters ◽

10.1016/j.econlet.2019.108659 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 184 ◽

pp. 108659 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jesse Bricker ◽

Peter Hansen ◽

Alice Henriques Volz

Keyword(s):

Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽

Consumer Finances ◽

Wealth Concentration ◽

The U.S

Download Full-text

What Do We Know about the Evolution of Top Wealth Shares in the United States?

The Journal of Economic Perspectives ◽

10.1257/jep.29.1.47 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 47-66 ◽

Cited By ~ 56

Author(s):

Wojciech Kopczuk

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

The United States ◽

Fixed Income ◽

Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽

Estate Tax ◽

Consumer Finances ◽

Wealth Concentration ◽

Top Incomes ◽

Mortality Improvements ◽

Over Time

I discuss available evidence about the evolution of top wealth shares in the United States over the course of the 20th century. The three main approaches—the Survey of Consumer Finances, estate tax multiplier, and capitalization methods—generate generally consistent findings until mid-1980s but diverge since then, with the capitalization method showing a dramatic increase in wealth concentration and the other two methods showing at best a small increase. I discuss strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. The increase in capitalization estimates since 2000 is driven by a dramatic and puzzling increase in fixed income assets. There is evidence that estate tax estimates may not be sufficiently accounting for mortality improvements over time. The nonresponse and coverage issues in the SCF are a concern. I conclude that the changing nature of top incomes and the increased importance of self-made wealth may explain difficulties in implementing each of the methods and why the results diverge.

Download Full-text

Understanding the Unequal Post-Great Recession Wealth Recovery for American Families

The B E Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy ◽

10.1515/bejeap-2016-0229 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 17 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Sisi Zhang ◽

Shuaizhang Feng

Keyword(s):

Great Recession ◽

Wealth Distribution ◽

Wealth Accumulation ◽

Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽

The Great Recession ◽

Consumer Finances ◽

Level Data ◽

Family Level ◽

The Mean ◽

Race Ethnicity

AbstractThe wealth of US families had not returned to its prerecession level by 2013, six years after the onset of the Great Recession. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of this slow and uneven episode of wealth recovery, using family-level data from the Survey of Consumer Finances 1989–2013. Both descriptive results and regressions controlling for life cycle wealth accumulation show that families of color and less-educated families are falling behind in wealth recovery because their wealth portfolios are concentrated in housing, which has recovered very slowly. The decomposition results suggest that homeownership plays a significant role in explaining wealth disparity by race, ethnicity, and education at the mean and bottom of the wealth distribution. Understanding the uneven wealth recovery has important implications for redesigning asset-related policies and narrowing wealth gaps.

Download Full-text

Survey of Consumer Finances: Data Overview

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.1022163 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Gerhard Fries ◽

Arthur B. Kennickell

Keyword(s):

Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽

Consumer Finances

Download Full-text

Quality of Match for Statistical Matches Using the American Time Use Survey 2010, the Survey of Consumer Finances 2010, and the Annual Social and Economic Supplement 2011

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2432153 ◽

2014 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Fernando RiossAvila

Keyword(s):

Time Use ◽

Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽

American Time Use Survey ◽

Consumer Finances ◽

Time Use Survey

Download Full-text

1963 Survey of Consumer Finances.

Journal of the American Statistical Association ◽

10.2307/2283166 ◽

1965 ◽

Vol 60 (309) ◽

pp. 370

Author(s):

James C. Byrnes ◽

George Katona ◽

Charles A. Lininger ◽

Eva Mueller

Keyword(s):

Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽

Consumer Finances

Download Full-text

The Risk Tolerance Measure in the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances: New, But Is It Improved?

Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning ◽

10.1891/jfcp-19-00022 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. JFCP-19-00022

Author(s):

Kyoung Tae Kim ◽

Sherman D. Hanna ◽

Dongyue Ying

Keyword(s):

Negative Relationship ◽

Risk Tolerance ◽

Stock Ownership ◽

Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽

Consumer Finances ◽

Two Measures ◽

Complex Patterns ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship ◽

Different Levels

The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) has included a 4-level risk tolerance measure since 1983. In 2016, the SCF also included an 11-level risk tolerance measure. We compare the two measures, and develop suggestions for using the new measure. While the new measure is seemingly simpler than the old measure, we demonstrate that it does not have a monotonic relationship with owning stock assets, with a pattern similar to the relationship of the old measure to stock ownership. We also identify complex patterns of factors related to different levels of the new measure, for instance education has a negative relationship at one level but positive at another level. Those using the new measure should consider the complex patterns we demonstrate.

Download Full-text