ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on methodological and factual issues connected with the distribution of household wealth: What is the proper definition of wealth? What are the most effective methods for estimating the size distribution of wealth from available data? The chapter discusses several important methodological issues involved in the estimation of household wealth inequality. It presents results on time trends in household wealth for three countries, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The chapter considers cross-sectional comparisons of household wealth inequality within a single country among different demographic groups and for different concepts of household wealth. There have been five principal sources of data for developing household wealth estimates: estate tax data; household survey data; wealth tax data; income capitalization techniques; and synthetic data sources. The data for the period from 1920 through 1975 are based on actual tax returns.
