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Wealth Concentration in the United States Using an Expanded Measure of Net Worth

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Abstract

Defined benefit (DB) pensions and Social Security are two important resources for financing retirement in the United States. However, these illiquid, non-market forms of wealth are typically excluded from measures of net worth. To the extent that these broadly held resources substitute for savings, measures of wealth inequality that do not account for DB pensions and Social Security may be overstated. This paper develops an alternative, expanded wealth concept, augmenting precise net worth data from the Survey of Consumer Finances with estimates of DB pension and expected Social Security wealth. We use this expanded wealth concept to explore the concentration of wealth among households aged 40 to 59 and find that (1) including DB pension and Social Security results in markedly lower measures of wealth concentration and that (2) trends toward higher wealth inequality over time, while moderated, are still present.

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  • Alice Henriques Volz & Lindsay Jacobs & Elizabeth Llanes & Kevin B. Moore & Jeffrey P. Thompson, 2021. "Wealth Concentration in the United States Using an Expanded Measure of Net Worth," Working Papers 21-6, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbwp:92855
    DOI: 10.29412/res.wp.2021.06
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    1. 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..
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    Cited by:

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    2. Markus Knell & Reinhard Koman, 2022. "Pension Entitlements and Net Wealth in Austria (Markus Knell, Reinhard Koman)," Working Papers 238, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank).
    3. , 2021. "Racial Wealth Disparities: Reconsidering the Roles of Human Capital and Inheritance," Working Papers 22-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    4. Alice Henriques Volz & Jeffrey P. Thompson, 2021. "A New Look at Racial Disparities Using a More Comprehensive Wealth Measure," Current Policy Perspectives 92970, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    5. Nadia Karamcheva & Victoria Perez-Zetune, 2023. "Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Plans and the Distribution of Family Wealth: Working Paper 2023-02," Working Papers 58305, Congressional Budget Office.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    wealth concentration; saving; Social Security; pensions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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