The Recent Evolution of Wealth Concentration in Spain: an Analysis from Tax Data

In Spain there is a historical lack of data about the distribution of wealth. For that reason, the use of tax data offers the opportunity to analyse the distribution of wealth over the 1983-2001 period. We concentrate on top 1% of taxpayers. The results suggest their share increases, mainly due to an increase in the concentration of equity shares, as in general housing evolution reduces concentration. However, this seems to change for the last years, when housing prices are booming since 1999, which could suggest that the share of top 1% has gone up since then onwards, as the booming period has lasted until 2006.