Discussion Papers no. 583

The impact of age adjustments on the wealth inequality ranking of countries

Older or wealthier?

Differences in individual wealth holdings are widely viewed as a driving force of economic inequality. However, as this finding relies on cross-section data, we may confuse older with wealthier. We propose a new method to adjust for age effects in cross-sections, which eliminates transitory wealth inequality due to age, yet preserves inequality arising from other factors. This new method is superior to existing methods, like the much used Paglin-Gini, which is shown to have several problems. A new cross-country comparable database reveals that the choice of method is empirically important: Existing methods yield erroneous wealth inequality rankings of countries.

Om publikasjonen

Tittel

Older or wealthier?. The impact of age adjustments on the wealth inequality ranking of countries

Ansvarlige

Ingvild Almås, Magne Mogstad

Serie og -nummer

Discussion Papers no. 583

Utgiver

Statistics Norway

Emne

Discussion Papers

Antall sider

25, [14]

Målform

Engelsk

Om Discussion Papers

Discussion papers comprise research papers intended for international journals and books. A preprint of a Discussion Paper may be longer and more elaborate than a standard journal article as it may include intermediate calculations, background material etc.

Kontakt