Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/301309 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 11183
Publisher: 
CESifo GmbH, Munich
Abstract: 
This paper examines long-term trends in aggregate wealth and inheritance and in their distributions, focusing on developed economies. A key stylized fact is that wealth is less equally distributed than income. Financial assets predominate among the wealthy, while owner-occupied housing is crucial for middle groups, so higher stock prices raise wealth inequality while house price increases do the opposite. Inheritances exacerbate absolute wealth inequality but reduce rel-ative inequality. Wealth inequality declined in advanced Western countries during the first half of the 20th century, then stabilized or rose. Aggregate wealth-to-income ratios have fluctuated, re-flecting both market and policy influences, whereas inherited wealth proportions have declined over the long run. Continued increases in the value of employer-based pensions, housing and social security wealth in recent decades have acted to reduce wealth inequality, offsetting the disequalizing impact of financial asset price increases to a varying extent across countries.
Subjects: 
wealth
inheritance
inequality
saving
history
JEL: 
E01
H55
D15
D31
E21
G51
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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