The objective of this paper is to study the dynamics of the wealth distribution over the path of economic development. More specifically, we are interested in distinguishing between changes which seem to be country specific and characteristics shared by all countries. A historical account of the...

This study presents new homogenous series of top income shares in Sweden over the period 1903–2004. We find that, starting from levels of inequality approximately equal to those in other Western countries at the time, the income share of the Swedish top decile drops sharply over the first...

The linear savings function in Stiglitz' model of wealth distribution is replaced by the assumption that the average savings propensity of each individual is determined by its relative income position and the marginal propensity to save is an increasing function of individual income. It is shown...

This paper analyzes the effects of removing the unfunded social security in an economy where entrepreneurs play a critical role in replicating the dispersion of wealth observed in the U.S. data. The quantitative findings reveal that the wealth Gini falls from 0 : 804 to 0 : 521 indicating a more...