Nber Working Paper Series the Historical Evolution of the Wealth Distribution: a Quantitative-theoretic Investigation

The Historical Evolution of the Wealth Distribution: A Quantitative-Theoretic Investigation

This paper employs the benchmark heterogeneous-agent model used in macroeconomics to examine drivers of the rise in wealth inequality in the U.S. over the last thirty years. Several plausible candidates are formulated, calibrated to data, and examined through the lens of the model. There is one main finding: by far the most important driver is the significant drop in tax progressivity that star...

Nber Working Paper Series the Distribution of Wealth and Fiscal Policy in Economies with Finitely Lived Agents

We study the dynamics of the distribution of overlapping generation economy with finitely lived agents and inter-generational transmission of wealth. Financial markets are incomplete, exposing agents to both labor income and capital income risk. We show that the stationary wealth distribution is a Pareto distribution in the right tail and that it is capital income risk, rather than labor income...

Nber Working Paper Series Poor Little Rich Kids? the Determinants of the Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth

Nber Working Paper Series Socioeconomic Status and Health: Dimensions and Mechanisms

This paper reviews the evidence on the well-known positive association between socioeconomic status and health. We focus on four dimensions of socioeconomic status -education, financial resources, rank, and race and ethnicity -paying particular attention to how the mechanisms linking health to each of these dimensions diverge and coincide. The extent to which socioeconomic advantage causes good...

Nber Working Paper Series Economies of Scale in Nineteenth Century American Manufacturing Revisited: a Resolution of the Entrepreneurial Labor Input Problem

This is a draft of a paper to be presented at the NBER conference on “Enterprising America: Businesses, Banks, and Credit Markets in Historical Perspective” to be held at Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, in December 2013. Comments from Jeremy Atack, Stanley Engerman, and Ian Keay are gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect t...