IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecb/ecbwps/20253142.html

Developing distributional national accounts: first attempt to estimate a joint distribution for income and wealth for the euro area

Author

Listed:
  • Blatnik, Nina
  • Kavonius, Ilja Kristian
  • Morais, Luís Teles

Abstract

In recent years, projects have sought to embed distributional aspects within national accounts, with household distributional information set to feature in the next System of National Accounts. There is growing emphasis on capturing all material dimensions of welfare—income, consumption, and wealth—at both macro and micro levels within a unified framework. This paper develops distributional multidimensional accounts for income and wealth, building on the Distributional Wealth Accounts (DWA), an experimental quarterly dataset first released in January 2024 by the European System of Central Banks. The DWA integrates the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) with macro statistics on household financial and non-financial balance sheets. We use the HFCS’s micro population to estimate consistent joint income transactions for these households, enabling analysis of the joint distribution of income and wealth, including wealth by income decile. This is the first multi-country approach to cover complete income accounts to disposable income and full balance sheets on a shared household sample. JEL Classification: D30, D31, E01, E21

Suggested Citation

  • Blatnik, Nina & Kavonius, Ilja Kristian & Morais, Luís Teles, 2025. "Developing distributional national accounts: first attempt to estimate a joint distribution for income and wealth for the euro area," Working Paper Series 3142, European Central Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20253142
    Note: 374170
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ecb.europa.eu//pub/pdf/scpwps/ecb.wp3142~33987afbdc.en.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ampudia, Miguel & van Vlokhoven, Has & Żochowski, Dawid, 2016. "Financial fragility of euro area households," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 250-262.
    2. Blanchet, Thomas & Martínez-Toledano, Clara, 2023. "Wealth inequality dynamics in europe and the united states: Understanding the determinants," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 25-43.
    3. Engel, Janina & Riera, Pau Gayà & Grilli, Joseph & Sola, Pierre, 2022. "Developing reconciled quarterly distributional national wealth – insight into inequality and wealth structures," Working Paper Series 2687, European Central Bank.
    4. Emanuel List, 2023. "Housing and Income Inequality in Europe: Distributional Effects of Non‐Cash Income From Imputed Rents," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(2), pages 504-532, June.
    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. Walk, Marten, 2025. "The Dynamics of Wealth Inequality: Distributional Effects of Asset Prices in Europe," MPRA Paper 126040, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Morelli, Salvatore & Nolan, Brian & Palomino, Juan C. & Van Kerm, Philippe, 2025. "Corrigendum to “The influence of inheritances on wealth inequality in rich countries”. [J. Public Econ. 247 (2025) 105398]," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    3. Guschanski, Alexander & Wildauer, Rafael, 2025. "Can a Wealth Tax reduce CO2 emissions in Europe?," Greenwich Papers in Political Economy 51227, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre.
    4. Christophe André, 2016. "Household debt in OECD countries: stylised facts and policy issues," Chapters from NBP Conference Publications, in: Hanna Augustyniak & Jacek Łaszek & Krzysztof Olszewski & Joanna Waszczuk (ed.), Papers presented during the Narodowy Bank Polski Workshop: Recent trends in the real estate market and its analysis - 2015 edition, chapter 2, pages v1, 33-85, Narodowy Bank Polski.
    5. Demetrio Guzzardi & Elisa Palagi & Tommaso Faccio & Andrea Roventini, 2023. "In search of lost time: An ensemble of policies to restore fiscal progressivity and address the climate challenge," LEM Papers Series 2023/28, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    6. Facundo Alvaredo & Yonatan Berman & Salvatore Morelli, 2025. "Evidence from the Dead: New Estimates of Wealth Inequality based on the Distribution of Estates," Working Papers halshs-04934624, HAL.
    7. Giordana, Gastón & Ziegelmeyer, Michael, 2020. "Stress testing household balance sheets in Luxembourg," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 115-138.
    8. Jaanika Meriküll & Tairi Rõõm, 2020. "Stress Tests of the Household Sector Using Microdata from Survey and Administrative Sources," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 16(2), pages 203-248, March.
    9. Chen, Chuna & Tan, Zhuomin & Liu, Song, 2024. "How does financial literacy affect households’ financial fragility? The role of insurance awareness," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    10. Anders Björklund & Markus Jäntti, 2025. "Income Distribution in Sweden in a Comparative Perspective: Evidence from New LIS-data," LIS Working papers 894, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    11. Liaqat Ali & Muhammad Kamran Naqi Khan & Habib Ahmad, 2020. "Financial Fragility of Pakistani Household," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 572-590, September.
    12. Nicolas Albacete & Pirmin Fessler & Maximilian Propst, 2020. "Mapping financial vulnerability in CESEE: understanding risk-bearing capacities of households is key in times of crisis," Financial Stability Report, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 39, pages 71-87.
    13. Gaston Giordana & Michael Ziegelmeyer, 2024. "Using household-level data to guide borrower-based macro-prudential policy," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 66(2), pages 785-827, February.
    14. Rudolf Faininger & Svenja Flechtner, 2025. "Migrant wealth in Germany," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 23(4), pages 1255-1282, December.
    15. Cristina OTTAVIANI & Daniela VANDONE, 2016. "Is Impulsivity a Mediator of the Relationship between Financial Literacy and Debt Decisions?," Departmental Working Papers 2016-06, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    16. Carpantier, Jean-Francois & Olivera, Javier & Van Kerm, Philippe, 2018. "Macroprudential policy and household wealth inequality," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 262-277.
    17. Giovanni D'Alessio & Stefano Iezzi, 2016. "Over-indebtedness in Italy: how widespread and persistent is it?," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 319, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    18. Fève, Patrick & Garcia, Pablo & Sahuc, Jean-Guillaume, 2018. "State-dependent risk taking and the transmission of monetary policy shocks," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 10-14.
    19. Ph. Du Caju & Th. Roelandt & Chr. Van Nieuwenhuyze & M.-D. Zachary, 2014. "Household debt: evolution and distribution," Economic Review, National Bank of Belgium, issue ii, pages 61-81, September.
    20. Leo Haan & Mauro Mastrogiacomo, 2020. "Loan to Value Caps and Government-Backed Mortgage Insurance: Loan-Level Evidence from Dutch Residential Mortgages," De Economist, Springer, vol. 168(4), pages 453-473, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ecb:ecbwps:20253142. 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: Official Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/emieude.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.