Wealth Inequality in a Low Rate Environment

IF 6.6 1区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS

Econometrica Pub Date : 2024-01-30 DOI:10.3982/ECTA19092

Matthieu Gomez, Émilien Gouin-Bonenfant

引用次数: 0

Abstract

We study the effect of interest rates on wealth inequality. While lower rates decrease the growth rate of rentiers, they also increase the growth rate of entrepreneurs by making it cheaper to raise capital. To understand which effect dominates, we derive a sufficient statistic for the effect of interest rates on the Pareto exponent of the wealth distribution: it depends on the lifetime equity and debt issuance rate of individuals in the right tail of the wealth distribution. We estimate this sufficient statistic using new data on the trajectory of top fortunes in the U.S. Overall, we find that the secular decline in interest rates (or more generally of required rates of returns) can account for about 40% of the rise in Pareto inequality; that is, the degree to which the super rich pulled ahead relative to the rich.

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低利率环境下的财富不平等

我们研究了利率对财富不平等的影响。虽然较低的利率会降低租借者的增长率，但也会通过降低融资成本来提高企业家的增长率。为了了解哪种效应占主导地位，我们推导出了利率对财富分布帕累托指数影响的充分统计量：它取决于财富分布右尾部个人的终生股权和债务发行率。总体而言，我们发现利率（或更广义的所需回报率）的长期下降可以解释帕累托不平等上升的约 40%；也就是说，超级富豪相对于富人的领先程度。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Econometrica 社会科学-数学跨学科应用

CiteScore

11.00

自引率

3.30%

发文量

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

期刊介绍： Econometrica publishes original articles in all branches of economics - theoretical and empirical, abstract and applied, providing wide-ranging coverage across the subject area. It promotes studies that aim at the unification of the theoretical-quantitative and the empirical-quantitative approach to economic problems and that are penetrated by constructive and rigorous thinking. It explores a unique range of topics each year - from the frontier of theoretical developments in many new and important areas, to research on current and applied economic problems, to methodologically innovative, theoretical and applied studies in econometrics. Econometrica maintains a long tradition that submitted articles are refereed carefully and that detailed and thoughtful referee reports are provided to the author as an aid to scientific research, thus ensuring the high calibre of papers found in Econometrica. An international board of editors, together with the referees it has selected, has succeeded in substantially reducing editorial turnaround time, thereby encouraging submissions of the highest quality. We strongly encourage recent Ph. D. graduates to submit their work to Econometrica. Our policy is to take into account the fact that recent graduates are less experienced in the process of writing and submitting papers.