Comparing Wealth Distribution Across Rich Countries: First Results from the Luxembourg Wealth Study

Abstract

The new Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS) creates for the first time a harmonized crossnational database on household assets and liabilities. This paper describes the project, outlines conceptual and practical issues that need to be addressed in preparing harmonized and comparable wealth data across countries, and summarizes the initial results for the eight countries participating in the initial phase: Canada, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.