IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0272864.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A study of UK household wealth through empirical analysis and a non-linear Kesten process

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Forbes
  • Stefan Grosskinsky

Abstract

We study the wealth distribution of UK households through a detailed analysis of data from wealth surveys and rich lists, and propose a non-linear Kesten process to model the dynamics of household wealth. The main features of our model are that we focus on wealth growth and disregard exchange, and that the rate of return on wealth is increasing with wealth. The linear case with wealth-independent return rate has been well studied, leading to a log-normal wealth distribution in the long time limit which is essentially independent of initial conditions. We find through theoretical analysis and simulations that the non-linearity in our model leads to more realistic power-law tails, and can explain an apparent two-tailed structure in the empirical wealth distribution of the UK and other countries. Other realistic features of our model include an increase in inequality over time, and a stronger dependence on initial conditions compared to linear models.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Forbes & Stefan Grosskinsky, 2022. "A study of UK household wealth through empirical analysis and a non-linear Kesten process," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(8), pages 1-16, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0272864
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272864
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272864
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272864&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0272864?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas Fagereng & Luigi Guiso & Davide Malacrino & Luigi Pistaferri, 2020. "Heterogeneity and Persistence in Returns to Wealth," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(1), pages 115-170, January.
    2. Jess Benhabib & Alberto Bisin, 2018. "Skewed Wealth Distributions: Theory and Empirics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1261-1291, December.
    3. Philip Vermeulen, 2018. "How Fat is the Top Tail of the Wealth Distribution?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 357-387, June.
    4. Victor M. Yakovenko & J. Barkley Rosser, 2009. "Colloquium: Statistical mechanics of money, wealth, and income," Papers 0905.1518, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2009.
    5. Eoin McLaughlin & Nick Hanley & David Greasley & Jan Kunnas & Les Oxley & Paul Warde, 2014. "Historical wealth accounts for Britain: progress and puzzles in measuring the sustainability of economic growth," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(1), pages 44-69.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Samuel Forbes & Stefan Grosskinsky, 2021. "A Study of UK Household Wealth through Empirical Analysis and a Non-linear Kesten Process," Papers 2107.02169, arXiv.org.
    2. Thomas Gottfried & Stefan Grosskinsky, 2024. "Wages and Capital returns in a generalized P\'olya urn," Papers 2401.17688, arXiv.org.
    3. Bertrand Garbinti & Jonathan Goupille-Lebret & Thomas Piketty, 2021. "Accounting for Wealth-Inequality Dynamics: Methods, Estimates, and Simulations for France," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 620-663.
    4. Yang, Xiaoliang & Zhou, Peng, 2022. "Wealth inequality and social mobility: A simulation-based modelling approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 307-329.
    5. Mauricio De Rosa, 2022. "Accumulation, inheritance and wealth distribution: first estimates of the untold half," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 22-07, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    6. David Gallusser & Matthias Krapf, 2022. "Joint Income-Wealth Inequality: Evidence from Lucerne Tax Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 251-295, August.
    7. Thomas Gottfried & Stefan Grosskinsky, 2025. "Wages and capital returns in a generalized Pólya urn," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 20(2), pages 477-518, April.
    8. Arun Advani & George Bangham & Jack Leslie, 2021. "The UK's wealth distribution and characteristics of high‐wealth households," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(3-4), pages 397-430, September.
    9. Rafael Wildauer & Stuart Leitch & Jakob Kapeller, 2021. "A European Wealth Tax for a Fair and Green Recovery," ICAE Working Papers 129, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    10. Jan Schulz & Mishael Milaković, 2023. "How Wealthy are the Rich?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(1), pages 100-123, March.
    11. Kapeller, Jakob & Leitch, Stuart & Wildauer, Rafael, 2021. "A European wealth tax for a fair and green recovery," Greenwich Papers in Political Economy 31442, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre.
    12. Ma, Qingyin & Stachurski, John & Toda, Alexis Akira, 2020. "The income fluctuation problem and the evolution of wealth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    13. repec:hal:pseptp:halshs-03231244 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Thilo N. H. Albers & Charlotte Bartels & Moritz Schularick, 2024. "Wealth and Its Distribution in Germany, 1895-2021," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2105, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    15. Wildauer, Rafael & Heck, Ines & Kapeller, Jakob, 2023. "Was Pareto right? Is the distribution of wealth thick-tailed?," Greenwich Papers in Political Economy 38597, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre.
    16. Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick & Ulrike I. Steins, 2020. "Income and Wealth Inequality in America, 1949–2016," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(9), pages 3469-3519.
    17. Alvaredo, Facundo & Atkinson, Anthony B. & Morelli, Salvatore, 2018. "Top wealth shares in the UK over more than a century," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 26-47.
    18. Luis Bauluz & Filip Novokmet & Moritz Schularick, 2022. "The Anatomy of the Global Saving Glut," Working Papers halshs-03693216, HAL.
    19. Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Levintal, Oren, 2024. "The Distributional Effects of Asset Returns," CEPR Discussion Papers 18855, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Fisher, Jack & Gavazza, Alessandro & Liu, Lu & Ramadorai, Tarun & Tripathy, Jagdish, 2024. "Refinancing cross-subsidies in the mortgage market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    21. Eddy Zanoutene, 2023. "Scale‐dependent and risky returns to savings: Consequences for optimal capital taxation," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(3), pages 532-569, June.

    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:plo:pone00:0272864. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.