Wealth Inequality in South Africa, 1993-2017

Aroop Chatterjee (1) , Léo Czajka (2) , Amory Gethin (3, 4, 5)

1 WITS - University of the Witwatersrand [Johannesburg]
2 UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain
3 PSE - Paris School of Economics
4 PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques
5 WIL - World Inequality Lab

This paper estimates the distribution of personal wealth in South Africa by combining microdata covering the universe of income tax returns, household surveys, and macroeconomic balance sheets statistics. We document unparalleled levels of wealth concentration. The top 10% own 86% of aggregate wealth and the top 0.1% close to one third. The top 0.01% of the distribution (3,500 individuals) concentrate 15% of household net worth, more than the bottom 90% as a whole. Such levels of inequality can be accounted for in all forms of assets at the top end, including housing, pension funds and financial assets. We find no sign of decreasing inequality since the end of apartheid. This article is arevisedversion of the article“Estimating the Distribution of Household Wealth in South Africa”(World Inequality Lab Working Paper 2020/06)

Domaines: Economies et finances

Aroop Chatterjee, Léo Czajka, Amory Gethin. Wealth Inequality in South Africa, 1993-2017. 2021. ⟨halshs-03266286⟩