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Analysis of Wealth Using Micro- and Macrodata: A Comparison of the Survey of Consumer Finances and Flow of Funds Accounts

In: Measuring Economic Sustainability and Progress

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  • Alice M. Henriques
  • Joanne W. Hsu

Abstract

Researchers use different types of household balance sheet data to study different aspects of lifecycle saving and wealth accumulation behavior. Macro data from the Flow of Funds Accounts (FFA) are produced at a quarterly frequency and are available in a timely manner, but they can only be used to study the behavior of the household sector as a whole. Micro data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) are available every three years and only with a lag, but they can be used to address questions that involve differences in behavior over time and across various types of households. Despite the very different approaches to estimating household net worth, the two data sets show the same general patterns wealth changes over the past twenty-five years. Areas where the FFA and SCF diverge in aggregate levels?in categories such as owner-occupied housing, noncorporate equity, and credit cards?may be explained by methodological decisions applied in the production of the data. Those differences do not fundamentally alter one's perception of household wealth dynamics in the period leading up to and following the Great Recession.
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  • Alice M. Henriques & Joanne W. Hsu, 2014. "Analysis of Wealth Using Micro- and Macrodata: A Comparison of the Survey of Consumer Finances and Flow of Funds Accounts," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Economic Sustainability and Progress, pages 245-274, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:12829
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    1. Carpio, Ronaldo & Guo, Meixin & Liu, Yuan & Pyun, Ju Hyun, 2021. "Wealth heterogeneity, information acquisition and equity home bias: Evidence from U.S. household surveys of consumer finance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Alina K. Bartscher & Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick & Ulrike I. Steins, 2020. "Modigliani Meets Minsky: Inequality, Debt, and Financial Fragility in America, 1950-2016," Staff Reports 924, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    3. Aroop Chatterjee & Léo Czajka & Amory Gethin, 2022. "Wealth Inequality in South Africa, 1993–2017," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 36(1), pages 19-36.
    4. Greg Kaplan & Benjamin Moll & Giovanni L. Violante, 2018. "Monetary Policy According to HANK," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(3), pages 697-743, March.
    5. Arthur B. Kennickell, 2019. "The tail that wags: differences in effective right tail coverage and estimates of wealth inequality," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 443-459, December.
    6. Aroop Chatterjee & Léo Czajka & Amory Gethin, 2020. "Estimating the Distribution of Household Wealth in South Africa," Working Papers hal-02876974, HAL.
    7. Sofie R. Waltl & Robin Chakraborty, 2022. "Missing the wealthy in the HFCS: micro problems with macro implications," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(1), pages 169-203, March.
    8. Christopher L Foote & Lara Loewenstein & Paul S Willen, 2021. "Cross-Sectional Patterns of Mortgage Debt during the Housing Boom: Evidence and Implications," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(1), pages 229-259.
    9. Andreasch Michael & Lindner Peter, 2016. "Micro- and Macrodata: a Comparison of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey with Financial Accounts in Austria," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 32(1), pages 1-28, March.
    10. Lisa J. Dettling & Sebastian Devlin-Foltz & Jacob Krimmel & Sarah Pack & Jeffrey P. Thompson, 2015. "Comparing Micro and Macro Sources for Household Accounts in the United States: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015-86, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    11. 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..
    12. Jesse Bricker & Kevin B. Moore & Jeffrey P. Thompson, 2019. "Trends in household portfolio composition," Working Papers 19-9, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    13. Arthur B. Kennickell, 2017. "Lining Up : Survey and Administrative Data Estimates of Wealth Concentration," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-017, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    14. Aboohamidi, Abbas & Chidmi, Benaissa, 2015. "Changes in the Wealth of American Households during the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis in the U.S," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205451, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Michael M. Batty & Jesse Bricker & Joseph S. Briggs & Alice Henriques Volz & Elizabeth Ball Holmquist & Susan Hume McIntosh & Kevin B. Moore & Eric R. Nielsen & Sarah Reber & Molly Shatto & Kamila Som, 2019. "Introducing the Distributional Financial Accounts of the United States," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2019-017, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    16. Michael Batty & Jesse Bricker & Joseph Briggs & Sarah Friedman & Danielle Nemschoff & Eric Nielsen & Kamila Sommer & Alice Henriques Volz, 2021. "The Distributional Financial Accounts of the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth, pages 641-677, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Bucks, Brian & Pence, Karen, 2015. "Wealth, pensions, debt, and savings: Considerations for a panel survey," Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, IOS Press, issue 1-4, pages 151-175.
    18. Alina K. Bartscher & Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick & Ulrike I. Steins, 2020. "The Distribution of Household Debt in the United States, 1950-2019," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 015, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    19. Jesse Bricker & Alice Henriques & Jacob Krimmel & John Sabelhaus, 2016. "Measuring Income and Wealth at the Top Using Administrative and Survey Data," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 47(1 (Spring), pages 261-331.
    20. Katya Kartashova & Xiaoqing Zhou, 2021. "Wealth Inequality and Return Heterogeneity During the COVID-19 Pandemic," Working Papers 2114, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    21. Adam Looney & Kevin B. Moore, 2015. "Changes in the Distribution of After-Tax Wealth: Has Income Tax Policy Increased Wealth Inequality?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015-58, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    22. Kennickell, Arthur B., 2021. "Chasing the Tail: A Generalized Pareto Distribution Approach to Estimating Wealth Inequality," SocArXiv u3zs2, Center for Open Science.

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