The challenge of measuring UK wealth inequality in the 2000s

FACUNDO ALVAREDO; ANTHONY B. ATKINSON; SALVATORE MORELLI

Fiscal Studies

Wiley

Lugar: New Jersey; Año: 2016 vol. 37 p. 13 - 33

1475-5890

The concentration of personal wealth is now receiving a great deal of attention ? after havingbeen neglected for many years. One reason is the growing recognition that, in seekingexplanations for rising income inequality, we need to look not only at wages and earnedincome but also at income from capital, particularly at the top of the distribution. In thispaper, we use evidence from existing data sources to attempt to answer three questions: (i)what is the share of total personal wealth that is owned by the top 1 per cent, or the top 0.1per cent? (ii) is wealth much more unequally distributed than income? (iii) is theconcentration of wealth at the top increasing over time? The main conclusion of the paper isthat the evidence about the UK concentration of wealth post-2000 is seriously incomplete andsignificant investment in a variety of sources is necessary if we are to provide satisfactoryanswers to the three questions.