Inequality: Earnings vs. Human Wealth

The objective of this paper is to draw some inferences concerning the relative magnitudes of inequality in annual earnings, the traditional measure, and in human wealth, the measure suggested by recent literature. A second objective is to assess the relative importance of schooling, measured ability and to a limited extent family background in earnings and human wealth inequality as well as the overall contribution of these variables combined. A unique feature of this study is the estimation of earnings and human wealth and their distribution for a group of men for which several age-earnings data points are available over almost an entire lifetime (ages eighteen to fifty-four).