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This chapter uses BHPS data to investigate how households built up wealth between 1995 and 2005. According to theory, differences in wealth-holdings across households are influenced by the life-cycle as people accumulate wealth in their working lives and then run down their wealth through their retirement. Previous empirical investigations into wealth inequality also emphasize the role played by variations in the composition and value of assets. In this chapter, we examine to what extent the final distribution of wealth in 2005 was the product of life-cycle effects and, given the importance of housing wealth and house price trends over the period, of house prices. We find that the reduction in wealth inequality observed in the BHPS panel is almost entirely accounted for by changes in house prices. We also examine the association between household characteristics and wealth change and identify which households benefited most from the house price boom.

This chapter explores ways of accumulating and distributing a wide range of forms of material assets. The first part identifies places where wealth and power tended to cluster, situates them within geographical networks, and comments on their relationship to the polities in which they lay. It then explores ways of accumulating and distributing wealth within early medieval economies, and notes ways in which kings and others took advantage of them. It notes shifting patterns of commerce, and their relationship to other forms of exchange. The second part of the chapter shifts focus from places to people, and from topographical to social networks. It addresses gift giving and patronage as strategies which were central to the ways in which early medieval lords and rulers used their resources to build and maintain their power. Finally, it argues that material wealth helped organize relationships between the human and the supernatural, and that its use offers insights into early medieval cosmologies.

In a previous study, the authors of this chapter evaluated the extent to which the different wealth accumulation of households with similar lifetime earnings could be accounted for by random shocks, such as health status and inheritances, that could reduce or increase the available resources out of which saving could be drawn. They concluded that only a small fraction of the dispersion in wealth accumulation within lifetime earnings deciles could be accounted for by random shocks, and thus that most of the dispersion could be attributed to choice; some people save while young, others do not. This chapter continues that analysis but with two additions: first, it evaluates the effect of investment choice on the accumulation of assets — in particular, how much of the dispersion in wealth can be accounted for by the choice between investment in the stock market and investment in presumably less risky assets such as bonds or bank saving accounts. Second, it attempts to understand the relationship between asset accumulation and individuals' assessment, just prior to retirement, of the adequacy of their saving and their saving behavior. The results indicate that the bulk of the dispersion in wealth at retirement results from the choice of some families to save while other similarly situated families choose to spend. For the most part, controlling for lifetime earnings, persons with little saving on the eve of retirement have simply chosen to save less and spend more over their lifetimes. Families with modest lifetime earnings would have accumulated substantial wealth had they saved consistently and invested prudently over the course of their working lives.

This chapter examines the role of inheritances and bequests in shaping household decisions on wealth accumulation. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 11.2 outlines a model of consumption and saving behavior that will guide the analysis and provide a framework for the validation. Section 11.3 describes the data sets that will be used. Section 11.4 examines the information from exit interviews given by proxy respondents for 774 Asset and Health Dynamics among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) respondents who died after the baseline AHEAD survey. These exit interviews provide, among other things, data about the medical and nonmedical costs associated with illnesses of the respondents and the value and distribution of their estates. Section 11.5 discusses the theoretical and empirical properties of the measure of bequest expectations. The data on actual and anticipated bequests are used in Section 11.6 to construct an index of saving intentions. The results suggest that people plan to dissave before they die. Section 11.7 provides a conclusion and summary. A commentary is also included at the end of the chapter.

This book confirms previous findings that households typically do not withdraw equity from housing to finance general consumption, but such withdrawal is more likely when a spouse dies or enters a nursing home. In addition to discussions of personal retirement plans and home equity, the book considers other aspects of wealth accumulation and compares asset accumulation in the United States and the United Kingdom. The analyses include consideration of the decline in mortality in the United States and the United Kingdom and the relationship between medical care and mortality. The relationship between pension income and health in South Africa also contributes to the understanding of the health-wealth relationship. The book also includes a formal discussion of econometric methodology to determine the direction of causality.

This chapter examines the accuracy of the quote “behind every great fortune is an equally great crime”, attributed to Balzac. In our times great individual fortunes are generally generated via the instrument of the business firm. The question then becomes when are firm profits a crime? Firm profits are, in general, explained by one or more of three factors: luck, efficiency, and collusion. While it is difficult to regard luck as a crime, luck does not reflect merit. Profits due to efficiency seem like the least problematic case, and collusion seems the clearest case of when fortune coincides with crime. A variety of cases lie, at least in a dynamic sense, at the intersection of the three conditions. Unfortunately, history suggests that big business and big government can collude to keep profits flowing to the former and contributions flowing to the latter. While luck and efficiency may help initiate wealth, the system tolerates connivance, making Balzac’s statement more plausible than it ought to be.

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. The main argument is that over time, the advanced capitalist democratic state has paradoxically become strengthened through globalization. The spread of neoliberal ideas reflects the demand of decisive voters from the middle and upper middle classes to fuel economic growth, wealth, and opportunity in the emerging knowledge economy. The “laws” of capitalism driving wealth accumulation are in fact politically and, largely, democratically manufactured. This was true to a large extent at the formation of advanced economies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but it is especially true in today's supposedly borderless economy.

This chapter proposes an information-theoretic perspective on the role of human ability in decision making. I define personality as a response system of a person that maps a situation to a behavior. The person-specific response system is characterized by various constraints. Based on the principle of maximum entropy, I treat these constraints as information since they reduce the entropy of the system. Physical laws and the human genome provide rudimentary constraints on the response system. Human ability constitutes an important set of advanced constraints. Therefore, human ability is entropy-reducing information. In particular, I define the information capacity of a person as the amount of entropy reduced by person-specific ability, which includes the ability to acquire information, to process information, and to discern incorrect information. I provide a heuristic discussion that relates information capacity with broad domains of noncognitive ability. I also highlight the connection between information capacity and three traits of noncognitive ability: Openness, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness.

This chapter examines the economic activities of sanctuaries. It assesses the manner in which activities connected with the accumulation and circulation of wealth were balanced in the sanctuaries, and the role played by sanctuaries in the movement of money and in the cash economy. It considers two aspects of the divine patrimony: accumulated offerings and holdings of real property; and two aspects of involvement by sanctuaries in economic life: building projects and the organization of their finances.

This chapter examines the policy debates over Social Security retirement benefits and concerns about the economic security of retirees. It first considers the extent of retirement income security before turning to the implications of the shift away from defined benefit plans and toward defined contribution plans. It then explains how the type of pension plan workers have affects their retirement behavior and presents data showing retirement wealth accumulations across the earnings distribution from employer-sponsored pension plans.

This chapter uses radio communication transcripts from the Tunnel Fire to illuminate specific challenges experienced by residents and responders alike at the time of the event. Based on these first-hand accounts, several important issues emerge concerning water, road, and power infrastructure. A review of reconstruction efforts in each area of concern demonstrates that progress toward reconciliation has been mixed. Capital improvements were driven largely by private property considerations and residents seeking to leverage the disaster in pursuit of neighborhood enhancements and estate-based wealth accumulation. Upgrades to water and power line equipment were lobbied and partially paid for by residents who used their positions of privilege to engage in collectivized risk reduction. In these instances the community was willing and able to supplement beleaguered city budget capacities and help pay for municipal upgrades. This presented a win-win for residents and the city of Oakland alike. However, when private benefits were less evident (or simply not attainable)—as was the case with road-widening initiatives—residents were less apt to back such recovery efforts. As a result, the pursuit of win-win outcomes unraveled.

This chapter examines the mechanisms through which poverty was alleviated or reproduced. It explores how various measures which might be seen in terms of hardship alleviation (political pay, associations, distribution of sacrificial meat) in fact demonstrate how rules of civic entitlement shaped access to resources. Other examples, such as local political structures and access to credit, show a disproportionate number of affluent Athenians, which served to reproduce the structures of wealth and poverty. Poverty was also reproduced by economic processes which allowed for the consolidation of wealth by the wealthy in the second half of the fourth century. This chapter reviews such evidence.

This chapter begins with Joseph Bank's birth on 13 February 1743 in Soho, London to William and Sarah Banks. It mentions the wedding of Banks' parents on 26 September 1741 and their first residence in one of the four Argyll Buildings in Bruton Street. It also discusses the life of Banks' great grandfather, Joseph I, who had begun the family's wealth accumulation and social elevation. The chapter also looks at Louise Grenville, Bank's first cousin, who was a significant point of contact for him into an important circle of political and societal figures of power and influence. It also emphasizes on Botany that will remain Banks' chief delight for the rest of his long life, including all aspects of natural history and philosophy.