Comparing Wealth Distribution across Rich Countries : First Results from the Luxembourg Wealth Study

The new Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS) creates for the first time a harmonized cross national database on household assets and liabilities. This paper describes the project, outlines conceptual and practical issues that need to be addressed in preparing harmonized and comparable wealth data across countries, and summarizes some results for the nine countries participating in the initial phase: Canada, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States