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  4. May 2019
  5. Wealth Distribution and Social Mobility in the US: A Quantitative Approach

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Wealth Distribution and Social Mobility in the US: A Quantitative Approach

  • Jess Benhabib
  • Alberto Bisin
  • Mi Luo
American Economic Review
vol. 109, no. 5, May 2019
(pp. 1623–47)
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Abstract

We quantitatively identify the factors that drive wealth dynamics in the United States and are consistent with its skewed cross-sectional distribution and with social mobility. We concentrate on three critical factors: (i) skewed earnings, (ii) differential saving rates across wealth levels, and (iii) stochastic idiosyncratic returns to wealth. All of these are fundamental for matching both distribution and mobility. The stochastic process for returns which best fits the cross-sectional distribution of wealth and social mobility in the United States shares several statistical properties with those of the returns to wealth uncovered by Fagereng et al. (2017) from tax records in Norway.

Citation

Benhabib, Jess, Alberto Bisin, and Mi Luo. 2019. "Wealth Distribution and Social Mobility in the US: A Quantitative Approach." American Economic Review, 109 (5): 1623–47. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20151684

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
  • E13 General Aggregative Models: Neoclassical
  • E21 Macroeconomics: Consumption; Saving; Wealth
  • E25 Aggregate Factor Income Distribution