Wealth Distribution and Social Mobility in the US: A Quantitative Approach
定量识别驱动美国财富动态的关键因素，包括偏态收入、不同财富水平的差异储蓄率以及随机异质性财富回报，以匹配财富分布的偏态和社会流动性。
We quantitatively identify the factors that drive wealth dynamics in the United States and are consistent with its skewed cross-sectional distribution and with social mobility. We concentrate on three critical factors: (i) skewed earnings, (ii) differential saving rates across wealth levels, and (iii) stochastic idiosyncratic returns to wealth. All of these are fundamental for matching both distribution and mobility. The stochastic process for returns which best fits the cross-sectional distribution of wealth and social mobility in the United States shares several statistical properties with those of the returns to wealth uncovered by Fagereng et al. (2017) from tax records in Norway.