Rich Become Richer and Poor Become Poorer: A Wealth Inequality Approach from Great Britain

Abstract

This paper discusses the distribution of wealth along with the phenomenal changes in wealth inequality worldwide; focusing, however, on Great Britain over the previous decade. By making use of the Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS), put together in Great Britain in waves from July 2006 to June 2014, we identify the main outcomes of the wealth distribution across time and space, i.e. the government office regions of the country. In our empirical analysis, we use house prices across the regions of Great Britain to identify their effect on the evolution of wealth inequality. Our results confirm that property wealth, and hence house prices, significantly affect inequality across the different groups of the wealth distribution. Moreover, among other findings, wealth is increasingly owned by those who can afford to buy real properties, while those who cannot, they observe their wealth decreasing sharply. Models have been tested for robustness across several specifications.