Boenke, Timm, Grabka, Markus M., Schroeder, Carsten, Wolff, Edward, (2017), “The role of social security wealth in international comparisons of household wealth: A head-to-head comparison of augmented wealth in Germany and the US”, Vox Eu, 10 May
While wealth inequalities have received some attention, most academic, political, and public debates focus on inequalities in income. Concerning private wealth and international comparisons of wealth inequalities, research usually investigates the distributions of real and financial assets, debts and net worth.1 Net worth is the current value of all marketable or fungible assets (total gross wealth) minus debts.2 Differences in levels of, and inequalities in, these aggregates miss an important component of household wealth positions, namely, pension wealth – the discounted expected present value of future entitlements from public, occupational, and private pension schemes. Considering pension wealth is important because households in different countries make private savings decisions conditional on the country-specific characteristics of pension institutions.
Relevant Posts
- Fontan, Clément, Jourdan, Stanislas, (2017), “How The ECB Boosts Inequality And What It Can Do About It”, Social Europe, 10 May
- Tcherneva, Pavlina R., (2017), “Inequality Update: Who Gains When Income Grows?”, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, Policy Note 2017/1, April