Where is the middle class? Inequality, gender and the shape of the upper tail from 60 million

Cummins, Neil ORCID: 0000-0001-7328-2967 (2019) Where is the middle class? Inequality, gender and the shape of the upper tail from 60 million. Economic History working papers. London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

This paper analyses a newly constructed individual level dataset of every English death and probate from 1892-2016. The estimated top wealth shares match closely existing estimates. However, this analysis clearly shows that the 20th century’s ‘Great Equalization’ of wealth stalled in mid-century. The probate rate, which captures the proportion of English with any significant wealth at death rose from 10% in the 1890s to 40% by 1950 and has stagnated to 2016. Despite the large declines in the wealth share of the top 1%, from 73% to 20%, the median English person died with almost nothing throughout. All changes in inequality after 1950 involve a reshuffling of wealth within the top 30%. Further, I find that a log-linear distribution fits the empirical data better than a Pareto power law. Finally, I show that the top wealth shares are increasingly and systematically male as one ascends in wealth, 1892-1992, but this has equalized over the 20th century.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Additional Information:	© 2019 The Author
Divisions:	Economic History
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
JEL classification:	N - Economic History > N0 - General > N00 - General N - Economic History > N3 - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Income, and Wealth > N33 - Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Income and Wealth: Europe: Pre-1913 N - Economic History > N3 - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Income, and Wealth > N34 - Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Income and Wealth: Europe: 1913- D - Microeconomics > D3 - Distribution > D31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
Date Deposited:	14 Feb 2019 15:36
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2024 19:29
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/100098

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