A recent literature has constructed top income shares time series over the long run for more than twenty countries using income tax statistics. Top incomes represent a small share of the population but a very significant share of total income and total taxes paid. Hence, aggregate economic growth per capita and Gini inequality indexes are sensitive to excluding or including top incomes. We discuss the estimation methods and issues that arise when constructing top income share series, including income definition and comparability over time and across countries, tax avoidance, and tax evasion. We provide a summary of the key empirical findings. Most countries experience a dramatic drop in top income shares in the first part of the twentieth century in general due to shocks to top capital incomes during the wars and depression shocks. Top income shares do not recover in the immediate postwar decades. However, over the last thirty years, top income shares have increased substantially in English speaking countries and in India and China but not in continental European countries or Japan. This increase is due in part to an unprecedented surge in top wage incomes. As a result, wage income comprises a larger fraction of top incomes than in the past. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and empirical models that have been proposed to account for the facts and the main questions that remain open.
A recent literature has constructed top income shares time series over the long run for more than twenty countries using income tax statistics. Top incomes represent a small share of the population but a very significant share of total income and total taxes paid. Hence, aggregate economic growth per capita and Gini inequality indexes are sensitive to excluding or including top incomes. We discuss the estimation methods and issues that arise when constructing top income share series, including income definition and comparability over time and across countries, tax avoidance, and tax evasion. We provide a summary of the key empirical findings. Most countries experience a dramatic drop in top income shares in the first part of the twentieth century in general due to shocks to top capital incomes during the wars and depression shocks. Top income shares do not recover in the immediate postwar decades. However, over the last thirty years, top income shares have increased substantially in English speaking countries and in India and China but not in continental European countries or Japan. This increase is due in part to an unprecedented surge in top wage incomes. As a result, wage income comprises a larger fraction of top incomes than in the past. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and empirical models that have been proposed to account for the facts and the main questions that remain open.
Auteur(s)
Anthony Atkinson1, 2
, Thomas Piketty3, 4
, Emmanuel Saez5
1
Nuffield College
( 46745 )
- Royaume-Uni
University of Oxford ( 302612 )
2
LSE -
London School of Economics and Political Science
( 328453 )
- Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE
- Royaume-Uni
3
PSE -
Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques
( 139754 )
- 48 boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris
- France
École normale supérieure - Paris ( 59704 )
;
Université Paris Sciences et Lettres ( 564132 )
;
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique USC1336 ( 92114 )
;
École des hautes études en sciences sociales ( 99539 )
;
École des Ponts ParisTech ( 301545 )
;
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR8545 ( 441569 )
4
PSE -
Paris School of Economics
( 301309 )
- 48 boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris
- France
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne ( 7550 )
;
École normale supérieure - Paris ( 59704 )
;
Université Paris Sciences et Lettres ( 564132 )
;
École des hautes études en sciences sociales ( 99539 )
;
École des Ponts ParisTech ( 301545 )
;
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( 441569 )
;
Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement ( 577435 )
5
UCLA -
University of California [Los Angeles]
( 72398 )
- Los Angeles, Californie 90095
- États-Unis
University of California ( 471291 )
Comité de lecture
Oui
Vulgarisation
Non
Langue du document
Anglais
Nom de la revue
JEL -
Journal of Economic Literature
(ISSN : 0022-0515)
Publié par American Economic Association
Revue non référencée dans Sherpa-Romeo
Audience
Non spécifiée
Date de publication
2011-03
Volume
49
Numéro
1
Page/Identifiant
3-71
Public visé
Scientifique
Sous-type de document pour les Articles
Research article
Version du document
version éditeur
Domaine(s)
Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Economies et finances
D - Microeconomics/D.D3 - Distribution/D.D3.D31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
D - Microeconomics/D.D6 - Welfare Economics/D.D6.D63 - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
H - Public Economics/H.H2 - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue/H.H2.H26 - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
N - Economic History/N.N3 - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy/N.N3.N30 - General, International, or Comparative
Anthony Atkinson, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez. Top Incomes in the Long Run of History. Journal of Economic Literature, 2011, 49 (1), pp.3-71. ⟨10.1257/jel.49.1.3⟩. ⟨halshs-00754557⟩