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

Author

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  • 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
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

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    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

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