NEWS
02.01.2021 | EJ
New Publication
Wealth in Spain 1900-2017
Miguel Artola Blanco, Luis Baulz, and Clara Martínez-Toledano published their paper "Wealth in Spain 1900-2017 A Country of Two Lands" in the Economic Journal.
This study reconstructs Spain’s national wealth from 1900 to 2017. By combining new sources with existing accounts, we estimate the wealth of both private and government sectors and use a new asset-specific decomposition of the long-run accumulation of wealth. We find that, during the twentieth century, the national wealth-to-income ratio remained within a relatively narrow range—between 400% and 600%—until the housing boom of the early 2000s led to an unprecedented rise to 800% in 2007. Our results highlight the importance of land, housing capital gains and international capital flows as key elements of wealth accumulation.
31.07.2020 | JMCB
New Publication
When to lean against the Wind
Björn Richter, Moritz Schularick, and Paul Wachtel have published their paper "When to lean against the Wind" in the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking.
Abstract: In this paper, we show that policymakers can distinguish between good and bad credit booms with high accuracy and they can do so in real time. Evidence from 17 countries over nearly 150 years of modern financial history shows that credit booms that are accompanied by house price booms and a rising loan‐to‐deposit ratio are much more likely to end in a systemic banking crisis than other credit booms. We evaluate the predictive accuracy for different classification models and show that characteristics observed in real time contain valuable information for sorting the data into good and bad booms.
29.07.2020 | JPE
New Publication
Income and Wealth Inequality in America
Moritz Kuhn, Moritz Schularick, and Ulrike I. Steins published their paper "Income and Wealth Inequality in America, 1949-2016" in the Journal of Political Economy.
Abstract: This paper introduces a new long-run data set based on archival data from historical waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances. Studying the joint distribution of household income and wealth, we expose the central importance of portfolio composition and asset prices for wealth dynamics in postwar America. Asset prices shift the wealth distribution because of systematic differences in household portfolios along the wealth distribution. Middle-class portfolios are dominated by housing, while rich households predominantly own business equity. Differential changes in equity and house prices shaped wealth dynamics in postwar America and decoupled the income and wealth distribution over extended periods.
01.06.2020 | JME
New Publication
The effects of quasi-random monetary experiments
Òscar Jordà, Moritz Schularick, and Alan M. Taylor published their paper "The effects of quasi-random monetary experiments" in the Journal of Monetary Economics.
Abstract: The trilemma of international finance explains why interest rates in countries that fix their exchange rates and allow unfettered cross-border capital flows are outside the monetary authority’s control. Based on this exogenous source of variation, we show that monetary interventions have large and significant effects using historical panel data since 1870. The causal effect of these interventions depends on whether: (1) the economy is above or below potential; (2) inflation is low; and (3) there is a credit boom in mortgage markets. Several novel control function adjustments account for potential spillover effects. The results have important implications for monetary policy.
18.05.2020 | VoxEU
VoxEU Column
Inequalty and household debt
Alina K. Bartscher, Moritz Kuhn, and Moritz Schularick published a VoxEU column on inequality and US household debt.
Household debt-to-income has quadrupled in the US since WWII. This column presents historical evidence suggesting that debt-to-income ratios have risen most dramatically for middle-class households with low income growth. Middle-class households have increasingly tapped into rising housing wealth to finance spending in excess of income. Home-equity based borrowing accounts for 50% of the increase in US housing debt and turned the middle-class into the epicentre of financial fragility.
01.04.2020 | Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
New Publication
The College Wealth Divide
Alina K. Bartscher, Moritz Kuhn, and Moritz Schularick published their paper "The College Wealth Divide: Education and Inequality in America, 1956-2016" in the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review.
Abstract: Using new long-run microdata, this article studies wealth and income trends of households with a college degree (college households) and without a college degree (noncollege households) in the United States since 1956. We document the emergence of a substantial college wealth premium since the 1980s, which is considerably larger than the college income premium. Over the past four decades, the wealth of college households has tripled. By contrast, the wealth of noncollege households has barely grown in real terms over the same period. Part of the rising wealth gap can be traced back to systematic portfolio differences between college and noncollege households that give rise to different exposures to asset price changes. Noncollege households have lower exposure to the equity market and have profited much less from the recent surge in the stock market. We also discuss the importance of financial literacy and business ownership for the increase in wealth inequality between college and noncollege households.