The distribution of wealth in most countries for which there is reliable data is strikingly uneven. There is also recent work suggesting that the wealth distribution has undergone significant movements over time, most recently with a large upward swing in dispersion in several AngloSaxon countries (Piketty 2014; Saez and Zucman 2016). For example, according to the estimates in Saez and Zucman (2016) for the United States, the share of overall wealth held by the top 1% has increased from around 25% in 1980 to more than 40% today; for the top 0.1% it has increased from less than 10% tomore than 20% over the same time period. The observed developments have generated strong reactions across the political spectrum. In his 2014 book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Piketty is obviously motivated by the growing inequality in itself, but he also suggests that further increases in wealth concentration may lead to both economic and democratic instability. Conservatives in the United States have expressed worries as well: Is the American dream really still alive, or might it be that a large fraction of the population simply will no longer be able to productively contribute to society? Given, for example, that parental wealth and well-being are important determinants of children’s human capital accumulation, these are legitimate concerns regardless of one’s political views. These concerns, moreover, have stimulated the proposal and discussion of a number of possible changes in policy. The primary aim of the present paper is, instead of focusing on policy changes, to understand the determinants of the observed movements in wealth inequality. This aim is basic but well-motivated in light of the

中文翻译：

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美国财富不平等的根源：过去、现在和未来

大多数有可靠数据的国家的财富分配都非常不平衡。最近的研究表明，随着时间的推移，财富分配发生了显着变化，最近在几个盎格鲁撒克逊国家出现了大幅上扬（Piketty 2014；Saez 和 Zucman 2016）。例如，根据 Saez 和 Zucman（2016 年）对美国的估计，前 1% 的人持有的总财富份额已从 1980 年的 25% 左右增加到今天的 40% 以上；同一时期，前 0.1% 的人口从不到 10% 增加到超过 20%。观察到的事态发展在整个政治领域产生了强烈反应。在他 2014 年出版的《二十一世纪的资本》一书中，皮凯蒂显然是受到日益加剧的不平等本身的驱使，但他也表示，财富集中度的进一步提高可能导致经济和民主的不稳定。美国的保守派也表达了担忧：美国梦真的还存在吗，还是说大部分人根本无法为社会做出富有成效的贡献？例如，鉴于父母的财富和福祉是儿童人力资本积累的重要决定因素，无论一个人的政治观点如何，这些都是合理的担忧。此外，这些担忧激发了对一些可能的政策变化的提议和讨论。本文的主要目的不是关注政策变化，而是了解观察到的财富不平等运动的决定因素。