IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedlwp/1996-012.html

The distribution of wealth, 1983-1992: secular growth, cyclical stability

Author

Listed:
  • John C. Weicher

Abstract

This article describes the changes in the concentration of wealth among U.S. households between 1983 and 1992, a period which nearly coincides with the most recent business cycle. The distribution of wealth has received popular attention recently, based on reports that it became markedly more unequal during the economic expansion of the 1980s. New data for 1992 indicates that the distribution was about the same in 1992 as in 1983, or for that matter as in 1962. A modest, insignificant increase in concentration between 1983 and 1989 was completely reversed by 1992. While the distribution was stable, total wealth and wealth per household increased over the cycle; rich and poor households enjoyed an approximately equal gain, in percentage terms.

Suggested Citation

  • John C. Weicher, 1996. "The distribution of wealth, 1983-1992: secular growth, cyclical stability," Working Papers 1996-012, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:1996-012
    DOI: 10.20955/wp.1996.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/working-papers-federal-reserve-bank-st-louis-9029/distribution-wealth-1983-1992-secular-growth-cyclical-stability-716010
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.20955/wp.1996.012?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. Richard T. Curtin & Thomas Juster & James N. Morgan, 1989. "Survey Estimates of Wealth: An Assessment of Quality," NBER Chapters, in: The Measurement of Saving, Investment, and Wealth, pages 473-552, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. James M. Poterba & Andrew A. Samwick, 1995. "Stock Ownership Patterns, Stock Market Fluctuations, and Consumption," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(2), pages 295-372.
    3. Lerman, Robert I. & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1989. "Improving the accuracy of estimates of Gini coefficients," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 43-47, September.
    4. James D. Smith, 1984. "Trends In The Concentration Of Personal Wealth In The United States, 1958 To 1976," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 30(4), pages 419-428, December.
    5. Lynn Karoly & Gary Burtless, 1995. "Demographic change, rising earnings inequality, and the distribution of personal well-being, 1959–1989," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 32(3), pages 379-405, August.
    6. Arthur B. Kennickell & Martha Starr-McCluer, 1994. "(Erratum) Changes in family finances from 1989 to 1992: evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Nov, pages 990-990.
    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. John C. Weicher, 1997. "Wealth and its distribution, 1983-1992: secular growth, cyclical stability," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Jan, pages 3-23.
    2. Jonathan Gruber & Aaron Yelowitz, 1999. "Public Health Insurance and Private Savings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(6), pages 1249-1274, December.
    3. Juan Luis Londoño & Miguel Székely, 2000. "Persistent Poverty and Excess Inequality: Latin America, 1970-1995," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 3, pages 93-134, May.
    4. James P. Ziliak, 2003. "Income Transfers and Assets of the Poor," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(1), pages 63-76, February.
    5. Londoño, Juan Luis & Székely, Miguel, 1997. "Persistent Poverty and Excess Inequality: Latin America, 1970-1995," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 6092, Inter-American Development Bank.
    6. Agnello, Luca & Mallick, Sushanta K. & Sousa, Ricardo M., 2012. "Financial reforms and income inequality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 583-587.
    7. Marta Lachowska, 2013. "Expenditure, Confidence, and Uncertainty: Identifying Shocks to Consumer Confidence Using Daily Data," Upjohn Working Papers 13-197, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    8. Victor R. Fuchs & Alan B. Krueger & James M. Poterba, 1997. "Why do Economists Disagree About Policy?," NBER Working Papers 6151, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Gale, William & Pence, Karen, 2006. "Are Successive Generations Getting Wealthier, and If So, Why?Evidence from the 1990s," MPRA Paper 55502, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Salvatore Barbaro & Anna-Sophie Kurella, 2025. "Dichotomous Preferences: Concepts, Measurement, and Evidence," Working Papers 2506, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    11. repec:osf:socarx:rp37g_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Jan Kakes & Jan Willem Van Den End, 2004. "Do stock prices affect house prices? Evidence for the Netherlands," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(12), pages 741-744.
    13. repec:osf:socarx:f53kz_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Wen, Chufu & Zhao, Xinyu & Xu, Longhao & Yin, Hua, 2023. "Military experience and household stock market participation: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    15. Florence Bouvet & Chong-Uk Kim, 2014. "Are US imports really hurting US households?: an analysis of the relationship between US households' consumption and US imports," Global Business and Economics Review, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 16(2), pages 157-178.
    16. Tatjana Miljkovic & Ying-Ju Chen, 2021. "A new computational approach for estimation of the Gini index based on grouped data," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 2289-2311, September.
    17. Nakov, Anton & Nuño, Galo, 2015. "Learning from experience in the stock market," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 224-239.
    18. Bengt Holmstrom & Steven N. Kaplan, 2003. "The State Of U.S. Corporate Governance: What'S Right And What'S Wrong?," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 15(3), pages 8-20, March.
    19. ERREYGERS, Guido & CLARKE, Philip & VAN OURTI, Tom, 2010. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all? Revisiting the extended concentration index," Working Papers 2010015, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    20. Grégory Levieuge, 2010. "Commentaire : Effets de richesse : le cas français. Les effets de richesse importent moins que les effets de bilan," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 438(1), pages 141-149.
    21. Heil, Mark T. & Wodon, Quentin T., 1999. "Future inequality in Carbon Dioxide emissions and the projected impact of abatement proposals," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2084, The World Bank.
    22. Nolan, Brian & Azzollini, Leo & Breen, Richard, 2022. "From Gender Equality to Household Earnings Equality: the role of Women's Labour Market Outcomes across OECD Countries," INET Oxford Working Papers 2022-13, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    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:fip:fedlwp:1996-012. 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: Scott St. Louis (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbslus.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.