Arbeitspapier
The top tail of the wealth distribution in Germany, France, Spain, and Greece
We analyze the top tail of the wealth distribution in Germany, France, Spain, and Greece based on the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS). Since top wealth is likely to be underrepresented in household surveys we integrate the big fortunes from rich lists, estimate a Pareto distribution, and impute the missing rich. Instead of the Forbes list we mainly rely on national rich lists since they represent a broader base for the big fortunes. As a result, the top percentile share of household wealth in Germany jumps up from 24 percent in the HFCS alone to 33 percent after top wealth imputation. For France and Spain we find only a small effect of the imputation since rich households are better captured in the survey. The results for Greece are ambiguous since the data do not show clear concentration patterns.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: DIW Discussion Papers ; No. 1502
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
Specific Distributions; Specific Statistics
Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
- Subject
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Wealth distribution
Missing rich
Pareto distribution
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Bach, Stefan
Thiemann, Andreas
Zucco, Aline
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
- (where)
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Berlin
- (when)
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2015
- Handle
- Last update
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10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Bach, Stefan
- Thiemann, Andreas
- Zucco, Aline
- Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
Time of origin
- 2015
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