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The Curious Incident of Luxury Imports during the Top-Income Surge

Author

Listed:
  • Stephanie Houle

    (McMaster University)

  • Pau Pujolas

    (McMaster University)

  • Michael Veall

    (McMaster University)

Abstract

Atkinson, Piketty and Saez (2011) find a post-1979 surge in taxfiler top income shares in "English speaking countries" (surge countries) but not in "continental European countries and Japan" (no-surge countries). Working at a similarly high level of abstraction, we find the puzzle that import-to-GDP ratios and import-to-total-import ratios for luxuries (pearls, precious stones, diamonds, works of art, jewellery, furs and coins) do not increase post-1979 in surge countries relative to no-surge countries. Explanations could include potential flaws in the taxfiler or import data, or that top income individuals do not have a particularly high marginal propensity to import these luxury goods. Overall, we believe that this is a fragment of evidence that there may not have been a large post-1979 increase in top-end domestic consumption inequality in surge countries compared to no-surge countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephanie Houle & Pau Pujolas & Michael Veall, 2019. "The Curious Incident of Luxury Imports during the Top-Income Surge," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(2), pages 1479-1487.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-18-00873
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    JEL classification:

    • D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution
    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade

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