Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/240702 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
Working Papers No. 2020-13
Publisher: 
Banco de México, Ciudad de México
Abstract: 
In the USA, the share of household wealth held by the richest 1% increased from 23.5% in 1980 to 41.8% in 2012. This paper contributes to understanding the causes behind this increase. First, using an accounting decomposition, I show that more than half of the increase in the share of the top 1% can be attributed to a decrease in the saving rate of the bottom 99%. Second, using a heterogeneous agent model, I show that the decrease in the saving rate of the bottom groups cannot be rationalized by the reduction in the progressively of taxation or changes in the volatility and concentration of labor earnings. Lastly, I introduce a shock to the credit market into the model in the form of loosening the borrowing constraints of the economy. This shock can simultaneously match the increase in wealth concentration and the decrease of the saving rate of the economy.
Subjects: 
Credit
Debt
Saving Rate
Wealth Distribution
JEL: 
D14
D31
D33
E21
E62
G51
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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