Wealth inequality and household structure : US vs. Spain

We study the link between culturally inherited household structure and wealth distribution in international comparisons using household data for the US and Spain (the SCF and the EFF). We estimate counterfactual US distributions relying on the Spanish household structure. Our results show that differences in household structure account for most of the differences in the lower part of the distribution between the two countries, but mask even larger differences in the upper part of the distribution. Imposing the Spanish household structure to the US wealth distribution has little effect on summary measures of inequality. However, this is the net result of reduced differences at the bottom and increased differences at the top. So there is distinct additional information in considering the whole distribution. We also report some evidence of an association between these wealth distribution differences and wealth composition. Finally, we present results for the within-group differences between the two countries using quantile regressions and find a reversing pattern by ag

The dynamics of household income and wealth : results from the panel of the spanish Survey of Household Finances (EFF) 2002-2005

The EFF collects detailed information on household assets, debts, income, consumption, and demographic variables. One important characteristic of this survey is that it oversamples high-wealth households. Another important characteristic of the EFF is that the second wave has a full panel component that provides statistical information on transitions among states and individual changes in the variables. The purpose of this work is to use the panel data of the EFF2002-2005 to describe the changes in income, asset holdings, and wealth of Spanish households between the end of 2002 and 200

Wealth effects on consumption : microeconometric estimates from the spanish survey of household finances

This paper presents estimates of wealth effects on consumer spending using the first wave of a new survey of Spanish household finances (EFF) that contains direct measures of asset holdings and consumption. A distinguishing feature of the EFF is the availability of such information from a representative sample subject to stratification by wealth. To control for the potential endogeneity of housing wealth, we exploit geographical house price variation and inheritance information in the EFF as instrumental variables. We focus on the effects of housing wealth, distinguishing between main and secondary housing, but also report OLS estimates of financial wealth effects. The pattern of wealth effects across age groups is also analyzed. We find large and statistically significant housing wealth effects for prime age households. Overall, the largest wealth effects are for owner occupied housing, followed by secondary housing, with financial wealth effects being smaller and insignificant

The Spanish Survey of Household Finances (EFF) : description and methods of the 2005 wave

We study the link between culturally inherited household structure and wealth distribution in international comparisons using household data for the US and Spain (the SCF and the EFF). We estimate counterfactual US distributions relying on the Spanish household structure. Our results show that differences in household structure account for most of the differences in the lower part of the distribution between the two countries, but mask even larger differences in the upper part of the distribution. Imposing the Spanish household structure to the US wealth distribution has little effect on summary measures of inequality. However, this is the net result of reduced differences at the bottom and increased differences at the top. So there is distinct additional information in considering the whole distribution. We also report some evidence of an association between these wealth distribution differences and wealth composition. Finally, we present results for the within-group differences between the two countries using quantile regressions and find a reversing pattern by ag

Wealth inequality and household structure : a comparison between Spain and the United States

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Housing purchases and the dynamics of housing wealth

En este trabajo se modelizan las decisiones de compra de vivienda principal y secundaria por parte de los hogares españoles utilizando la muestra panel proveniente de las dos primeras olas de la Encuesta Financiera de las Familias (EFF). Se estiman modelos de tasas de compra utilizando secuencias de compra retrospectivas y entre olas. También se estima un modelo (S,s) combinando datos de transacciones con información longitudinal acerca de los valores de la riqueza del hogar y de su stock de viviendas. Se analiza el papel de las expectativas adaptativas acerca de la tasa de rendimiento de la vivienda y se encuentra que tienen un efecto positivo y significativo sobre la demanda de viviendas. Esto es así tanto para las probabilidades de compra históricas y entre olas como para la ratio objetivo de riqueza en vivienda sobre riqueza total. La volatilidad del crecimiento en los precios de la vivienda tiene un efecto negativo en las compras para inversión pero positivo en las compras para consum

Measuring expectations from household surveys : new results on subjective probabilities of future house prices

Analizo nuevos datos acerca de las expectativas probabilísticas subjetivas de precios de la vivienda recogidos en la Encuesta Financiera de las Familias (EFF). Se pide a los hogares que repartan diez puntos entre cinco escenarios distintos relativos al cambio en el precio de sus viviendas durante los próximos doce meses. Este trabajo es el primer estudio empírico en documentar las creencias de una muestra representativa de hogares acerca del valor futuro de sus viviendas. El trabajo también describe la metodología de la medición de expectativas e investigaciones recientes sobre probabilidades subjetivas de los hogares. Modelizo las funciones de densidad de probabilidad subjetiva individuales utilizando una interpolación lineal con intervalos, construyo cuantiles basados en esas funciones y analizo cómo la heterogeneidad en las distribuciones individuales se relaciona con diferencias en características de la vivienda y del hogar. Un resultado importante del trabajo es que las mujeres son más optimistas acerca de la evolución del precio de la vivienda que los hombres. La localización geográfi ca de la vivienda a escala de código postal explica una gran parte de la variación entre hogares en las distribuciones subjetivas. Finalmente, proporciono algunos resultados acerca de cómo las expectativas subjetivas importan para predecir el comportamiento del gasto. Invertir en vivienda y comprar un coche se asocian de forma negativa con expectativas pesimistas acerca de los cambios en los precios de la vivienda futuros y con incertidumbre en esas expectativasI analyse new data on subjective probabilistic expectations on house prices collected in the Spanish Survey of Household Finances. Households are asked to distribute ten points among fi ve different scenarios for the change in the price of their homes over the next 12 months. This paper is the fi rst empirical study to document the beliefs of a representative sample of households about the future value of their homes. It also reviews the methodology of expectation measurement and recent work on household subjective probabilities. I model individual subjective probability densities using splines, construct quantiles from those densities, and analyse how the heterogeneity in the individual distributions relates to differences in housing and household characteristics. An important result of the paper is that women are more optimistic about the evolution of house prices than men. Location at the postal code level accounts for a large fraction of the variation in the subjective distributions across households. Finally, I provide some results on how subjective expectations matter for predicting spending behaviour. Housing investment and car purchases are negatively associated with pessimistic expectations about future house price changes and with uncertainty about those expectation

Desigualdad de la riqueza y estructura de los hogares : una comparación de España con Estados Unidos

Artículo de revistaResumen de los principales resultados del Documento de trabajo relacionad