IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/revinw/v20y1974i2p143-180.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Concentration Of Personal Wealth In America, 1969

Author

Listed:
  • James D. Smith

Abstract

This essay focuses on the problems of estimating the share of America's personal wealth in the hands of affluent individuals by a technique known as the estate multiplier method. Rather than exploring these problems in an empirical vacuum, we first present some results from the most recent estimates of the distribution of U.S. personal wealth.1 The estimates—for the year 1969—are then used as a basis for gauging the sensitivity of estate multiplier estimates to variations in approach. Section I presents new empirical findings dealing with the asset holdings of top wealth‐holders and the super rich, and with the shares of specific assets owned by them. Also presented is information about the sex and marital status of the super rich. Section II discusses various technical aspects of the estate multiplier as applied to federal estate tax returns. The main concern is with the weighting process, but attention is paid to the fact that estate tax returns filed in a given year are not for decedents who died in that year or any single year, and to the problems of adjusting the face value of life insurance to cash surrender value.

Suggested Citation

  • James D. Smith, 1974. "The Concentration Of Personal Wealth In America, 1969," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 20(2), pages 143-180, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:20:y:1974:i:2:p:143-180
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4991.1974.tb00915.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4991.1974.tb00915.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1475-4991.1974.tb00915.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Edward N. Wolff, 1980. "Estimates of the 1969 Size Distribution of Household Wealth in the U.S. from a Synthetic Data Base," NBER Chapters, in: Modeling the Distribution and Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth, pages 223-272, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Alan S. Blinder & Irving Kristol & Wilbur J. Cohen, 1980. "The Level and Distribution of Economic Well-Being," NBER Chapters, in: The American Economy in Transition, pages 415-500, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. James B. Davies & Livio Di Matteo, 2021. "Long Run Canadian Wealth Inequality in International Context," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(1), pages 134-164, March.
    4. Mark Clifford Schechter, 1976. "The Legal Cost of Dying Rich," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 20(2), pages 69-73, October.
    5. James D. Smith, 1980. "Introduction to "Modeling the Distribution and Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth"," NBER Chapters, in: Modeling the Distribution and Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth, pages 1-8, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. John Muellbauer, 2019. "The Political Economy of Price Indices," Cyprus Economic Policy Review, University of Cyprus, Economics Research Centre, vol. 13(1), pages 35-56, June.
    7. Hager, Sandy Brian, 2013. "America's Real 'Debt Dilemma'," Review of Capital as Power, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism, vol. 1(1), pages 41-62.
    8. Thilo N. H. Albers & Charlotte Bartels & Moritz Schularick, 2020. "The Distribution of Wealth in Germany, 1895-2018," ECONtribute Policy Brief Series 001, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    9. Daniel Radner, 1989. "The Wealth of the Aged and Nonaged, 1984," NBER Chapters, in: The Measurement of Saving, Investment, and Wealth, pages 645-688, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Hager, Sandy Brian, 2016. "Public Debt, Inequality and Power. The Making of a Modern Debt State," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 157976, July.

    More about this item

    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:bla:revinw:v:20:y:1974:i:2:p:143-180. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iariwea.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.