IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/epa/cepawp/2023-02.html

No Rest for The Weary: Measuring the Changing Distribution of Wealth in The US

Author

Listed:

Abstract

Since 1992 wealth for the bottom 90% of households nearing retirement has fallen. The only source of wealth helping the bottom 90% is Social Security. Despite pro savings policies and generous tax breaks for savings, the share of the bottom 50% having any retirement account didn’t change in 20 years -- 46% in 1992 and 47% in 2016. Even the middle class suffered with the share of the next 40% having retirement savings that fell from 85% in 1992 to a low of 71% in 2016. Housing ownership increased a bit for the bottom 50% but fell among the middle class and upper middle class. Home equity for the working and middle class fell. Using SCF and HRS data over 20 years, we find the bulk of working-class wealth is government social insurance. Economists should not exclude social insurance from wealth calculations. We find social insurance is the most important source of wealth for most families. Government policies and institutions have failed wealth building for most American households with workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Teresa Ghilarducci & Siavash Radpour & Jessica Forden, 2023. "No Rest for The Weary: Measuring the Changing Distribution of Wealth in The US," SCEPA working paper series. 2023-02, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    • Handle: RePEc:epa:cepawp:2023-02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.economicpolicyresearch.org/images/Retirement_Project/Working_Papers/2023_Nov_No_Rest_for_the_Weary.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William G. Gale & John Karl Scholz, 1994. "Intergenerational Transfers and the Accumulation of Wealth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 145-160, Fall.
    2. Dana P. Goldman & Peter R. Orszag, 2014. "The Growing Gap in Life Expectancy: Using the Future Elderly Model to Estimate Implications for Social Security and Medicare," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 230-233, May.
    3. Courtney C. Coile & Kevin Milligan & David A. Wise, 2018. "Introduction to "Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Working Longer"," NBER Chapters, in: Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Working Longer, pages 1-32, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Suresh Naidu & Eric A. Posner, 2022. "Labor Monopsony and the Limits of the Law," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(S), pages 284-323.
    5. Courtney Coile & Kevin S. Milligan & David A. Wise, 2018. "Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World: Working Longer – Introduction and Summary," NBER Working Papers 24584, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. John Bound & Arline Geronimus & Javier Rodriguez & Timothy Waidmann, 2014. "The Implications of Differential Trends in Mortality for Social Security Policy," Working Papers wp314, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    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. Alfonso R. Sánchez Martín & Sergi Jiménez Martín, 2021. "La compatibilidad del trabajo y el cobro de pensión en España: análisis institucional en el contexto europeo," Studies on the Spanish Economy eee2021-11, FEDEA.
    2. Li Tan & Cory Koedel, 2019. "The Effects of Differential Income Replacement and Mortality on U.S. Social Security Redistribution," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(2), pages 613-637, October.
    3. Anna Amilon & Mona Larsen, 2023. "Increasing retirement ages in Denmark: Do changes in gender, education, employment status and health matter?," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Hernæs, Erik & Kornstad, Tom & Markussen, Simen & Røed, Knut, 2023. "Ageing and labor productivity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    5. Mengyuan Zhou, 2022. "Does the Source of Inheritance Matter in Bequest Attitudes? Evidence from Japan," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 867-887, December.
    6. Korom, Philipp, 2016. "Inherited advantage: The importance of inheritance for private wealth accumulation in Europe," MPIfG Discussion Paper 16/11, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    7. Block, Joern H. & Hirschmann, Mirko & Kranz, Tobias & Neuenkirch, Matthias, 2023. "Public family firms and economic inequality across societies," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    8. Mathias Moser & Stefan Humer & Matthias Schnetzer, 2016. "Bequests and the accumulation of wealth in the Eurozone," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 149, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    9. Elmendorf, Douglas W. & Gregory Mankiw, N., 1999. "Government debt," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 25, pages 1615-1669, Elsevier.
    10. Hero Ashman & Seth Neumuller, 2020. "Can Income Differences Explain the Racial Wealth Gap: A Quantitative Analysis," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 35, pages 220-239, January.
    11. Zsofia Barany & Nicolas Coeurdacier & Stéphane Guibaud, 2015. "Fertility, Longevity and International Capital Flows," Working Papers hal-01164462, HAL.
    12. Shinichi Nishiyama, 2000. "Bequests, Inter Vivos Transfers, and Wealth Distribution: Technical Paper 2000-8," Working Papers 13332, Congressional Budget Office.
    13. Sofoluwe, Nurudeen Afolabi, 2021. "Effect of Access to Innovations on Assets Acquisition and Development Capacity of Women in Rural Nigeria," Western Balkan Journal of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development (WBJAERD), Institute of Agricultural Economics, vol. 3(2), July.
    14. James Poterba, 1997. "The Estate Tax and After-Tax Investment Returns," NBER Working Papers 6337, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Engelhardt, Gary V. & Mayer, Christopher J., 1998. "Intergenerational Transfers, Borrowing Constraints, and Saving Behavior: Evidence from the Housing Market," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 135-157, July.
    16. Yang, Siqiang & Ripoll, Marla, 2023. "Financial transfers from parents to adult children," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 286-303.
    17. Shinichi Nishiyama, 2002. "Bequests, Inter Vivos Transfers, and Wealth Distribution," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 5(4), pages 892-931, October.
    18. Edward N. Wolff & Maury Gittleman, 2011. "Inheritances and the Distribution of Wealth or Whatever Happened to the Great Inheritance Boom? Results from the SCF and PSID," NBER Working Papers 16840, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Chase, Ivan D. & Douady, Raphael & Padilla, Dianna K., 2020. "A comparison of wealth inequality in humans and non-humans," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 538(C).
    20. Córdoba, Juan Carlos & Ripoll, Marla, 2013. "What explains schooling differences across countries?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 184-202.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions

    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:epa:cepawp:2023-02. 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: Bridget Fisher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cenewus.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.