Essays in Income and Wealth Inequality

Abstract

The distribution of income and wealth across households in the U.S. has changed dramatically since the 1950s. How are rising income and wealth inequality linked? This thesis aims at providing new insights into the relationship between income, wealth accumulation and inequality. The first two chapters focus on trends of income and wealth portfolios over time. In the third chapter a new model is introduced that simulates the observed joint distribution of income and wealth.