Capital is Back: Wealth-Income Ratios in Rich Countries, 1700-2010
Thomas Piketty,Gabriel Zucman +1 more
TLDR
In this paper, the authors used 1970-2010 national balance sheets of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France to investigate how the aggregate wealth-to-income ratios evolve in the long run and why.Abstract:
How do aggregate wealth-to-income ratios evolve in the long run and why? We address this question using 1970–2010 national balance sheets recently compiled in the top eight developed economies. For the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France, we are able to extend our analysis as far back as 1700. We find in every country a gradual rise‘ of wealth-income ratios in recent decades, from about 200–300% in 1970 to 400–600% in 2010. In effect, today’s ratios appear to be returning to the high values observed in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (600–700%). This can be explained by a long-run asset price recovery (itself driven by changes in capital policies since the world wars) and by the slowdown of productivity and population growth, in line with the �¼ s g Harrod-Domar-Solow formula. That is, for a given net savingread more
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Capital in the Twenty-First Century
TL;DR: Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century as mentioned in this paper is an intellectual tour de force, a triumph of economic history over the theoretical, mathematical modeling that has come to dominate the economics profession in recent years.
Journal ArticleDOI
Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data
Emmanuel Saez,Gabriel Zucman +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors combine income tax returns with Flow of Funds data to estimate the distribution of household wealth in the United States since 1913, showing that wealth concentration has followed a U-shaped evolution over the last 100 years: it was high in the beginning of the twentieth century, fell from 1929 to 1978, and has continuously increased since then.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Top 1 Percent in International and Historical Perspective
Abstract: World Top Incomes Database at http://topincomes.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/) and has represented a challenge to the economics profession. Stories based on the and has represented a challenge to the economics profession. Stories based on the supply and demand for skills are not enough to explain the extreme top tail of supply and demand for skills are not enough to explain the extreme top tail of the earnings distribution; nor is it enough to look only at earned incomes. Different the earnings distribution; nor is it enough to look only at earned incomes. Different approaches are necessary to explain what has happened in the United States over approaches are necessary to explain what has happened in the United States over the past century and also to explain the differing experience in other high-income the past century and also to explain the differing experience in other high-income countries over recent decades. We begin with the international comparison in the countries over recent decades. We begin with the international comparison in the fi rst section and then turn to the causes and implications of the evolution of top fi rst section and then turn to the causes and implications of the evolution of top income shares. income shares.
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Distributional National Accounts: Methods and Estimates for the United States
TL;DR: This article used tax, survey, and national accounts data to estimate the distribution of national income in the United States since 1913, finding that income has boomed at the top and stagnated for the bottom 50% of the distribution at about $16,000 a year.
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The Race between Man and Machine: Implications of Technology for Growth, Factor Shares, and Employment
Daron Acemoglu,Pascual Restrepo +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the concerns that new technologies will render labor redundant in a framework in which tasks previously performed by labor can be automated and new versions of existing tasks, in which labor has a comparative advantage, can be created.
References
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