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WEALTH INEQUALITY: DATA AND MODELS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2008

Marco Cagetti  and
Mariacristina De Nardi
Marco Cagetti
Affiliation:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Mariacristina De Nardi*
Affiliation:
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and NBER
*
Address correspondence to: Mariacristina De Nardi, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Research Department, 230 South La Salle Street, Chicago, IL 60604, USA; e-mail: denardim@nber.org.
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Abstract

In the United States wealth is highly concentrated and very unequally distributed: the richest 1% hold one third of the total wealth in the economy. Understanding the determinants of wealth inequality is a challenge for many economic models. We summarize some key facts about the wealth distribution and what economic models have been able to explain so far.

Keywords

InequalitySavingsLife-Cycle Models
Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 12 , Supplement S2: Inequality , September 2008 , pp. 285 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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