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Working Paper
Changes in the Distribution of After-Tax Wealth: Has Income Tax Policy Increased Wealth Inequality?
A substantial share of the wealth of Americans is held in tax-deferred form such as in retirement accounts or as unrealized capital gains. Most data and statistics on assets and wealth is reported on a pre-tax basis, but pre-tax values include an implicit tax liability and may not provide as accurate a measure of the financial position or material well-being of families. In this paper, we describe the distribution of tax-deferred assets in the SCF from 1989 to 2013, provide new estimates of the income tax liabilities implicit in those assets, and present new statistics on the level and ...
Working Paper
Wealth, Pensions, Debt, and Savings: Considerations for a Panel Survey
Several U.S. panel surveys measure household wealth. At the same time, many important questions about household wealth accumulation remain somewhat unresolved. We consider whether measurement error on the existing suite of longitudinal surveys hinders their usefulness for addressing these questions. We review the features of wealth data that make it difficult to collect and assess which assets and debts households are more likely to report accurately. We suggest several considerations in choosing between improving existing surveys and starting a new one.
Journal Article
Opportunity for Whom? Building Wealth Through Advancing Racial Equity
America is undergoing a profound demographic shift amid rising inequality and persistent racial inequities. By 2030, the majority of workers under 25 will be people of color.1 By 2044, the majority of Americans will be people of color.2 Rising diversity is a tremendous asset ? if all people can access the resources and opportunity they need to thrive. If we want to truly build wealth in communities, we must relentlessly embrace the conviction that everyone in America can and should live in communities of opportunity, where good schools, healthy environments, safe homes, quality jobs, and ...
Journal Article
New Data on Wealth Mobility and Their Impact on Models of Inequality
Using data on families? wealth over time, we calculate changes in relative wealth mobility; that is, how likely families are to move up or down the wealth distribution, relative to one another. We find families have become less likely to change their position in the wealth distribution over time, and those that do move are less likely to go very far. We also look at the savings behaviors that are associated with more mobile families and find that families that make large movements through the wealth distribution appear to be more likely to own some form of a risky asset.
How Financially Fit Are American Retirees?
From 1989 to 2016, the wealth of retired households increased in real terms. But data also indicated that wealth inequality worsened among retirees.