ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Wealth Inequality in the South: Multi-Source Evidence from Uruguay
Mauricio De Rosa,
Corresponding Author
Mauricio De Rosa
Universidad de la República, Uruguay, and Paris School of Economics
Correspondence to: Mauricio De Rosa, Instituto de Economía, Universidad de la República, Lauro Müller 1921, Montevideo, Uruguay 11200 ([email protected]).
Search for more papers by this authorMauricio De Rosa,
Corresponding Author
Mauricio De Rosa
Universidad de la República, Uruguay, and Paris School of Economics
Correspondence to: Mauricio De Rosa, Instituto de Economía, Universidad de la República, Lauro Müller 1921, Montevideo, Uruguay 11200 ([email protected]).
Search for more papers by this authorFirst published: 12 March 2024
Note: I am grateful to all the institutions that supported this long-standing project, namely Universidad de la República, in particular its Comisión Académica de Posgrado and CSIC's Programa de Iniciación a la Investigación for their grants; as well as Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación for my PhD scholarship and the Paris School of Economics. I am also grateful for the very valuable comments on this project made throughout the years by Thomas Piketty, Facundo Alvaredo, Nora Lustig, Chico Ferreira, Branko Milanovic, Andrea Vigorito, Joan Vilá, Marc Morgan, Ignacio Flores, Salvatore Morelli, Rodrigo Lluberas, and Luis Bértola. I would like to thank Graciela San Román and Guillermo Santos for their help with processing the Wealth Household Survey, Sylvia Amado from the National Cadastre for data and technical assistance, and Uruguay's Tax Authority, Dirección General Impositiva, in particular Gustavo González and Fernando Peláez. All errors remain my own.
Abstract
While wealth accumulation and its distribution are arguably two of the key drivers of overall economic inequality, as well as being of major importance in their own right, very little is known about them in the developing world. I contribute to filling this gap by providing a micro–macro consistent series of aggregate wealth and its distribution in Uruguay. The country's balance sheet, which is not estimated by official institutions, is constructed for the first time by combining a wide array of data sources, leading to a book-value wealth-to-income ratio of 450–500 percent. Private wealth distribution is then estimated based on the capitalization method, taking stock of combined survey-tax-national accounts micro-data, resulting in a top 1 percent wealth share of 37–40 percent. Estimates are systematically compared with results based on the estate multiplier method, real estate wealth tax, household wealth survey, and Forbes billionaires list.
Supporting Information
| Filename | Description |
|---|---|
| roiw12683-sup-0001-supinfo-replication.zipZip archive, 9.2 MB | Data S1: Supporting Information. |
| roiw12683-sup-0002-supinfo.pdfPDF document, 1.2 MB | Appendix S2: Supporting Information. |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
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