The question of whether affluent households save at a higher rate than other parts of the distribution has been asked by economists on numerous occasions since the 1950s. It is standard in this research to define affluent, or "rich," households as those with high lifetime earnings or income to...

The purpose of this work is twofold: first, it aims to derive an exact analytical form of the Pareto index based on the already developed model of the economy as a scale-free network comprising a given amount of either wealth or income (total number of links, each link representing a non-zero...

Although economists widely advocate carbon pricing as an effective solution to reduce carbon emissions, this mechanism has had so far limited effects. This paper proposes a new type of tax to help finance (and accelerate) the green transition. A carbon wealth tax (CWT) is proposed to be levied...

We examine the causal effect of education on financial outcomes related to stock markets and retirement savings, leveraging a major compulsory school reform and a unique data set covering the universe of investors in Türkiye. The estimates show no effects on participation rates, portfolio...

How do childhood environments contribute to intergenerational economic mobility? This paper explores the relative roles of family background (parents' wages, income, and wealth during the early years), and neighbourhoods (including access to services during childhood), in determining...

This paper connects classical preference theory to quantitative job search and savings models. We treat job acceptance as a choice between stochastic income lotteries. By integrating Decreasing Absolute Risk Aversion (DARA) and Prudence (DAP), we derive five contributions. First, we prove the...

When did Sweden become equal? This question has far-reaching implications for our understanding of Swedish history, as well as for theories about inequality, institutions, and politics more broadly. In this article, we present the first multidimensional comparative analysis of the development of...

Moral and pragmatist sociology has studied capitalism as a set of institutions that require justification, which has historically been offered through forms of rewarding and meaningful work, anchoring the human life course in a narrative of individual and collective progress. However, emerging...

This paper examines long-term trends in aggregate wealth and inheritance and in their distributions, focusing on developed economies. A key stylized fact is that wealth is less equally distributed than income. Financial assets predominate among the wealthy, while owner-occupied housing is...

In this paper, we analyze the saving motives of European households using micro-data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), which is conducted by the European Central Bank. We find that the rank ordering of saving motives differs greatly depending on what criterion is used to...

Rising wealth inequality and squeezed public budgets has brought wealth tax back into policy discussions. A net wealth tax might help to boost state revenue and reduce wealth inequality. Yet little is known about citizens’ attitudes towards the design of a net wealth tax (i.e. the tax unit,...

We study the effect of bequests and their taxation on wealth inequality. We allow for random death and birth in a continuous-time, dynastic framework. Individuals behave optimally and accumulate wealth over their lifetime. Bequests above a tax exemption threshold are taxed according to a fixed...

This research investigates the impact of digital village development on clean energy poverty (CEP) in rural areas within the context of energy and digitalization transition in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Utilizing the Index of Digital Rural County (IDRC) and China Family Panel Studies...

We take advantage of a unique experiment that took place in Iceland in 2015. Following the collapse of the country's banking system in 2008, the authorities decided on a program of mortgage relief that in effect lowered the principal of mortgages overnight. What sets our experiment apart from...

This study demonstrates how inter vivos transfers alter the life trajectories of young adults by (i) directly raising wealth levels and (ii) indirectly supporting wealth accumulation by impacting interest rates, borrowing, entrepreneurship, and spending. A unique Danish policy setting allows me...

This paper explores the relationships between air pollution, income, wealth, and race by combining administrative data from U.S. tax returns between 1979–2016, various measures of air pollution, and sociodemographic information from linked survey and administrative data. In the first year of...

We analyze how pension wealth influences retirement timing using 25 years of Danish administrative panel data on wealth and labor market status. Exploiting early-career variation in firm-specific mandatory pension contribution rates, we study labor supply decisions from age 55 onward. Greater...

We analyze how pension wealth influences retirement timing using 25 years of Danish administrative panel data on wealth and labor market status. Exploiting early-career variation in firm-specific mandatory pension contribution rates, we study labor supply decisions from age 55 onward. Greater...

Using unique administrative data that link privately held firm owners to rich background information, we provide novel evidence on underage children as firm owners. Ownership occurs at all ages 0--17, with a mean age of 12. Childhood ownership is strongly concentrated among high-income families,...

We document key patterns in the flow of significant gifts and loans between friends and family in Great Britain, using newly-available data from the Wealth and Assets Survey. We identify a number of new stylised facts. Gifts and loans are generally intergenerational transfers: 83% of the value...