We study the link between education and wealth inequality through the channel of financial investment decisions. We present a simple model of individuals with heterogeneous ability in evaluating investment opportunities. We show that a welfare maximizing policy-maker can reduce inequality by...

Using new long-run microdata, this article studies wealth and income trends of households with a college degree (college households) and without a college degree (noncollege households) in the United States since 1956. We document the emergence of a substantial college wealth premium since the...

Using new long-run microdata, this paper studies wealth and income trends of college and non-college households in the United States since 1956. We document the emergence of a substantial college wealth premium since the 1980s, which is considerably larger than the college income premium. Over...

I examine how differences in the ability to identify profitable investment opportunities contribute to wealth inequality. I analyze a model of financial markets with investors heterogeneously informed about future returns. The unconditional wealth share distribution features a thick right-tail...

Using data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances and the U.S. Census Bureau, along with data and research from other sources, this paper presents seven economic facts about the racial wealth gap in the U.S. We present data on racial disparities in income, employment, homeownership,...

The measurement of Inequality of Opportunity has attracted a lot of attention in recent years, despite of the fact that it is very limited by the scarce availability of data on family background. In this paper we propose a method to overcome this limitation, which consists of using another...

This paper analyzes the short-run dynamics and changing sources of wealth among the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest individuals in the United States, using annual data for 12 years spanning before and after the financial crisis of 2008-9. Over the entire time period the growth of wealth was...

We characterize the distribution of permanent-income and quantify the value of assets and human capital in lifetime wealth portfolios. We estimate the distribution of human wealth using nonparametric identification results that allow for state-dependent stochastic discounting and unobserved...

This paper examines the relationship between inequality and discrimination. Using a simple model of competitive signaling, this paper shows that income inequality motivates discrimination against low-income group. It is parents' investment on their children's signaling that interlinks inequality...