Wealth Concentration in Spain in European Context 1900-2010: Local versus Global Forces

FACUNDO ALVAREDO; MIGUEL ARTOLA

Valencia

Workshop; Inequality in a Recessionary World: From Global to Local; 2015

Universidad de Valencia

This paper presents estimates of the concentration of personal wealth at death in Spain between 1901 and 1958 by making use of inheritance tax statistics. Results point to the persistence of an overall high level of inequality right until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, which bared similar patterns to the situation in other European countries until 1914. Since 1939 and over the following two decades, inheritance data point to a growing percentage of the population holding wealth and a slight decrease in concentration that contradicts much of the existing literature that has insisted in an increase in inequality during the first decades of Franco's dictatorship. Traditional explanations based on purely national circumstances (institutional factors -as the promotion of home ownership, or the rent controls imposed during Franco's regime- as well as the evolution of the stock market) collide with the fact that very similar trends and levels are observed in all the European countries for which similar series exist, and which stress the relevance of global forces. We also provide a comparison with the evolution of wealth concentration among the living since 1980 based on wealth tax statistics.