Measuring Wealth and Wealth Inequality: Comparing Two U.S. Surveys. Pfeffer, F. T., Schoeni, R. F., Kennickell, A., & Andreski, P. 2015. Unpublished manuscript
Measuring Wealth and Wealth Inequality: Comparing Two U.S. Surveys [link]Link  abstract   bibtex   2 downloads  
The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) are the two nationally representative surveys most commonly used in research to study wealth holdings of U.S. households. Estimates of wealth and wealth inequality are compared in the two surveys. Estimated mean total net worth is 31% higher in the SCF. This gap is primarily due to the oversample in the SCF of households likely to have high wealth, the relatively high value in the SCF of business assets among business owners, equity in primary residence, and ownership rates of "other assets." Estimates of total net worth are similar throughout most of the distribution, with median net worth in the SCF 6% higher than in the PSID and with the largest differences between the two surveys concentrated in the 1-2 percent wealthiest households. With the SCF and PSID fulfilling central and complementary roles in supporting research on wealth in the United States, the estimates reported here further clarify the relative strengths of these datasets.
@unpublished{Pfefferetal2015,
  title = {Measuring Wealth and Wealth Inequality: Comparing Two {{U}}.{{S}}. Surveys},
  author = {Pfeffer, Fabian T. and Schoeni, Robert F. and Kennickell, Arthur and Andreski, Patricia},
  year = {2015},
  url = {https://psidonline.isr.umich.edu/Publications/Papers/},
  abstract = {The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) are the two nationally representative surveys most commonly used in research to study wealth holdings of U.S. households. Estimates of wealth and wealth inequality are compared in the two surveys. Estimated mean total net worth is 31\% higher in the SCF. This gap is primarily due to the oversample in the SCF of households likely to have high wealth, the relatively high value in the SCF of business assets among business owners, equity in primary residence, and ownership rates of "other assets." Estimates of total net worth are similar throughout most of the distribution, with median net worth in the SCF 6\% higher than in the PSID and with the largest differences between the two surveys concentrated in the 1-2 percent wealthiest households. With the SCF and PSID fulfilling central and complementary roles in supporting research on wealth in the United States, the estimates reported here further clarify the relative strengths of these datasets.},
  keywords = {Methods of Estimation of Wealth Inequality},
  note = {Unpublished manuscript}
}

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