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
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: DIW Discussion Papers ; No. 1502

Classification
Wirtschaft
Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
Specific Distributions; Specific Statistics
Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
Subject
Wealth distribution
Missing rich
Pareto distribution

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Bach, Stefan
Thiemann, Andreas
Zucco, Aline
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
(where)
Berlin
(when)
2015

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Bach, Stefan
  • Thiemann, Andreas
  • Zucco, Aline
  • Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)

Time of origin

  • 2015

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