Missing the wealthy in the HFCS: micro problems with macro implications

Abstract Wealth aggregates implied by the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) usually yield much lower amounts than macroeconomic statistics reported in National Accounts. An important source of this gap may be under-representation wealthiest households HFCS. This article therefore combines a semi-parametric Pareto model estimated from top survey data observations rich lists with non-parametric stratification approach to quantify impact missing wealthy on component-specific micro-macro gaps. We find that unadjusted micro substantially underestimates wealth inequality. The largest effects are documented for equity. For other components, explain less ten percentage points gap. differences oversampling strategies limit cross-country comparability survey-implied distributions our tail adjustment leads measures internationally better comparable.