Lining Up: Survey and Administrative Data Estimates of Wealth Concentration

• Activity Number: 134
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 10, 2015 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Arthur Kennickell*
• Companies: Federal Reserve Board
• Keywords: Wealth distribution ; Survey of Consumer Finances ; Administrative data

Abstract

The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) has a dual-frame sample design that supplements a standard area-probability frame with a stratified sample of observations drawn from statistical records derived from tax returns. The tax-based frame is stratified on the basis of a "wealth index" constructed largely from observed income flows, with the intent of oversampling wealthy households. Although the SCF is not specifically designed to estimate wealth concentration, the design arguably provides sufficient support to enable such analysis with a reasonable level of credibility. Similar estimates may also be made by using tax-based data directly, as in Saez and Zuckman [2014], by using a construct very close to the SCF wealth index. Not surprisingly, there are differences. This paper explores the stability of the relationship between the patterns of concentration in the survey data with the parallel patterns in tax-based estimates and examines the effects of sampling and nonresponse on the estimates. The paper also provides estimates of the wealth and income distributions over the period since 1989.