Consider the Source

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Consider the Source
Comments by A B Atkinson, Nuffield College,
Oxford
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• Context
• Other countries
• Past studies
• J Davies and T Shorrocks Surveys are very
  valuable sources but ETD probably yield more
  reliable data on the upper tail (2000, page
  664).

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US Results R Lampman (1962) Survey gives
some confirmation of our ETD estimates E
Wolff (1996) share of top 1 individuals in ETD
based estimates in 1962 approx share of top 1
households in Survey W Kopczuk and E Saez
(2004) two independent sources ETD and SCF
suggest that wealth concentration has not
increased significantly since the mid-1980s.
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Survey
Balance sheet totals
Investment income in income tax data
Estate tax data
Wealth tax data
Different comparisons
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Marrying Up Hot decking Versus Bounds
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Distinguish Lorenz curves versus Shape of upper
tail
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Are social surveys good enough on their own? If
YES, do we still want to look at ETD and other
sources for confirmation? If NO, is it enough to
use balance sheet adjustments? If NO, should we
merge ETD data at the top with survey data?
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• Answer depends on question addressed
• ? ETD for individualist plutocrats
• ? LWS for family focused democrats