Does housing wealth contribute to wealth inequality? A tale of two New Yorks

Guillaume Allegre (1) , Xavier Timbeau (1)

1 OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (Sciences Po)

In Capital in the 21st century (hereafter Capital), Thomas Piketty points outthe risk of a concentration of wealth in the twenty-first century that would threaten the social justice and meritocratic values of our democratic societies.The main force of divergence is due to the fact that net returns on capital (r) are expected to be greater than the growth of the economy (g), or: “r>g”.According to Piketty, this will lead to two undesirable consequences: firstly,wealth will have a tendency to concentrate in the hands of a few; secondly,constituted wealth will tend to dominate accumulated wealth from labour:“the past devours the future”.

Keywords: Inequality of income; Housing wealth; Wealth inequality

Domains: Economics and Finance

Guillaume Allegre, Xavier Timbeau. Does housing wealth contribute to wealth inequality? A tale of two New Yorks. OFCE Briefing Paper, 2015, 9, pp.1 - 11. ⟨hal-03470245⟩