This comprehensive Research Review pinpoints seminal and classic articles that are key in the development of economic analysis of the distribution of wealth. Topics discussed include the measurement of the distribution of wealth and analyses the time trends in wealth concentration and the...

This chapter is concerned with the distribution of personal wealth, which usually refers to the material assets that can be sold in the marketpace, although on occasion pension rights are also included. We summarise the available evidence on wealth distribution for a number of countries. This...

We provide the first estimate of the level and distribution of global household wealth. The level of assets and debts for 39 countries are measured using household balance sheet and survey data centred on the year 2000. Average wealth holdings are imputed to countries lacking direct evidence....

Changing family size and labour-leisure choice are introduced into a life cycle model. Saving corresponds with empirical observation in some ways better, and in others worse, as a result. Changing family size reduces aggregate saving and generates substantial dissaving at peak size, indicating...

Comparing steady states of an overlapping-generations economy, Gary S. Becker and Nigel Tomes (1979) and James B. Davies (1986) have noted that redistributive taxation can be disequalizing. This paper solves for the full transition path of inequality after a redistributive tax increase. The...

The likely distributive effects of imposing annual net worth taxes or capital transfer taxes in Canada are analyzed. The conceptual basis of such an exercise is discussed. Calculations of possible short-run impacts of an annual wealth tax on income and wealth distribution are then performed....

This paper shows that the appropriate approach to calculating accrual equivalent marginal tax rates for nonaccrual taxes on personal financial investments is the relative-reduction-in-the-internal-rate-of-return approach, which equates the present values from the after-tax returns from an...