The Wealth Distribution in Developing Economies: Comparing the United States to Chile

This study examines the differences of income, assets, debt and wealth distributions between the U.S. and Chile. The study uses data from the 2008 Survey of Consumer Finance for the U.S. and data from the 2007 Financial Household Survey from Chile. The article reports different features on inequality among the two countries at the aggregate level but also by head of household demographic characteristics. We find that income and debt are more unequally distributed in Chile than in the US, but assets and wealth are more equally distributed in Chile than in the US. Our results suggest that, among theories that seek to explain wealth inequality in the US, entrepreneurship is the one that seems more plausible.