This paper estimates rates of return across the gross wealth distribution in eight European countries. Like differential saving rates, differential rates of return matter for Post Keynesian theory, because they impact the income and wealth distribution and add an explosive element to growth models. We show that differential rates of return matter empirically by merging data on household balance sheets with long-run returns for individual asset categories. We find that (1) the composition of wealth differentiates between three socioeconomic groups: 30% are asset-poor, 65% are middle-class home owners, and the top 5% are business-owning capitalists; (2) rates of return rise across all groups; and (3) rates of return broadly follow a log-shaped function across the distribution, where inequality in the lower half of the distribution is higher than in the upper half. If socioeconomic groups are collapsed into the bottom 95% workers and top 5% capitalists, then rates of return are 5.6% for the former and 7.2% for the latter.

中文翻译：

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越来越富有？不同社会经济群体的回报差异

本文估计了八个欧洲国家总财富分布的回报率。与不同的储蓄率一样，不同的回报率对后凯恩斯理论很重要，因为它们影响收入和财富分配，并为增长模型添加了爆炸性元素。我们通过将家庭资产负债表的数据与单个资产类别的长期回报合并，从经验上证明了差异回报率的重要性。我们发现 (1) 财富构成在三个社会经济群体之间存在差异：30% 是资产匮乏的，65% 是中产阶级业主，前 5% 是拥有企业的资本家；(2) 所有群体的回报率都在上升；(3) 回报率在整个分布中大致遵循对数函数，其中分布下半部分的不平等程度高于上半部分。如果社会经济群体被分解为底层 95% 的工人和顶层 5% 的资本家，那么前者的回报率为 5.6%，后者为 7.2%。