On the Share of Inheritance in Aggregate Wealth: Europe and the USA, 1900–2010

Facundo Alvaredo (1, 2) , Bertrand Garbinti (3, 4) , Thomas Piketty (5, 1)

1 PSE - Paris School of Economics
2 CONICET - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas [Buenos Aires]
3 Centre de recherche de la Banque de France
4 CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique
5 PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques

This paper provides historical series on the evolution of the share of inherited wealth in aggregate private wealth in Europe (France, the UK, Germany, Sweden) and the USA over the 1900–2010 period. Until 1910, the inheritance share was very high in Europe (70–80%). It then fell abruptly following the 1914–45 shocks, down to about 30–40% during the 1950–80 period, and is back to 50–60% (and rising) since around 2010. The US pattern also appears to be U-shaped, albeit less marked, and with significant uncertainty regarding recent trends, due to data limitations. We discuss possible interpretations for these long-run patterns.

Mots clés: inherited wealth

Domaines: Economies et finances

Facundo Alvaredo, Bertrand Garbinti, Thomas Piketty. On the Share of Inheritance in Aggregate Wealth: Europe and the USA, 1900–2010. Economica, 2017, 84 (334), pp.239-260. ⟨halshs-01511115⟩