Wealth and the Wealthy

by Rowlingson, Karen; McKay, Stephen

• ISBN13: 9781847423078
• ISBN10: 1847423078
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-15
• Publisher: Policy Pr

Summary

The wealthy have received relatively little attention from social scientists despite the growing gap between rich and poor. A much-needed step forward for the wealth debate, Wealth and the Wealthy draws on new data to answer the following key questions: What is wealth? Who has it? Where might we draw a wealth line? Who would be above it? And how should policy address wealth and the wealthy? Karen Rowlingson and Stephen McKay comprehensively and critically examine these issues and explore potential policy responses, including asset-based welfare and taxation.

Author Biography

Karen Rowlingson is Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM) at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests include personal finance and inequality. Stephen Mckay is Professor of Social Research in the School of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham. He has particular expertise in the secondary analysis of complex datasets in relation to, social security, inequality and wealth.

Table of Contents

List of tables and figures	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. x
About the authors	p. xi
Introduction	p. xii
Why wealth matters	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
From collective welfare to individual assets	p. 2
The role of assets in people's lives	p. 8
Is there an asset effect?	p. 12
Conclusions	p. 16
Why the wealthy matter	p. 19
Introduction	p. 19
The increasing concentration of income and wealth	p. 20
Is the concentration of income and wealth a social problem?	p. 25
Is the concentration of income and wealth good or bad for the economy?	p. 32
Un/equal opportunities and un/fair rewards	p. 37
Attitudes to the gap between rich and poor	p. 45
Conclusions	p. 49
What is wealth and who are the wealthy?	p. 53
Introduction	p. 53
Conceptualising and defining wealth	p. 53
Measuring wealth	p. 56
Conceptualising and defining the wealthy	p. 63
Measuring the wealthy	p. 74
Conclusions	p. 79
The distribution of wealth	p. 81
Introduction	p. 81
The distribution of wealth	p. 81
Combining income and assets	p. 92
The distribution of assets by age, ethnicity and region	p. 93
Gender and the within-household distribution of wealth	p. 101
Inheritance and unearned wealth	p. 107
Conclusions	p. 112
The rich, the richer and the richest	p. 115
Introduction	p. 115
The rich	p. 116
The richer	p. 126
The richest	p. 130
Philanthropy and charitable giving	p. 136
Conclusions	p. 143
Towards a comprehensive policy on assets	p. 145
Introduction	p. 145
The goals of a comprehensive policy on assets	p. 146
Asset-based welfare policies, proposals and perspectives	p. 153
Policies on housing wealth	p. 160
Pensions policy	p. 171
Taxing assets in the UK	p. 176
Within-household distribution of assets	p. 181
Conclusions	p. 183
Social policy and the wealthy	p. 187
Introduction	p. 187
The goals of policy on riches	p. 188
Equal opportunity policy	p. 194
Taxation policy	p. 199
Policies for original income and wealth	p. 210
Conclusions	p. 217
Conclusions	p. 219
References	p. 225
Index	p. 247
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