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Survey Estimates of Wealth - Mathematica Policy Research

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Table II.8 provides estimates <strong>of</strong> aggregate assets, liabilities, and net worth by quintile <strong>of</strong> net<br />

worth for SIPP and the SCF. Including the bottom quintile, where the SIPP finds greater<br />

aggregate negative net worth than the SCF, the SIPP estimates much lower aggregate net worth<br />

than the SCF in every quintile. The SIPP approaches the SCF most closely in the third and<br />

fourth quintiles, where the SIPP accounts for 68 and 73 percent, respectively, <strong>of</strong> the SCF<br />

aggregate net worth. But the SIPP finds only 45 percent <strong>of</strong> the SCF aggregate net worth in the<br />

top quintile and only 51 percent in the second quintile.<br />

Families with a net worth <strong>of</strong> two million dollars or more account for nearly $12 trillion <strong>of</strong><br />

the aggregate wealth estimated by the SCF and $7 trillion <strong>of</strong> the net worth estimated by the PSID<br />

but only $1.5 trillion <strong>of</strong> the net worth estimated by the SIPP. After excluding this group the SIPP<br />

share <strong>of</strong> the SCF estimate <strong>of</strong> aggregate wealth in what remains <strong>of</strong> the top quintile rises to nearly<br />

79 percent, or somewhat higher than the SIPP share <strong>of</strong> the aggregate net worth in the fourth<br />

quintile. Over the whole population the SIPP estimate <strong>of</strong> aggregate net worth excluding the<br />

wealthy is 75 percent <strong>of</strong> the comparable SCF estimate.<br />

The similarity between the PSID and SCF estimates <strong>of</strong> aggregate net worth by quintile is<br />

striking. The estimates are essentially identical in the second and fourth quintiles, and they<br />

become identical in the top quintile and over the whole population after the wealthy families are<br />

removed. The PSID falls short <strong>of</strong> the SCF aggregate only in the first and third quintiles.<br />

Separating assets and liabilities shows that the story is more complex than the net worth<br />

distributions would suggest. In the bottom quintile <strong>of</strong> the net worth distribution, the SIPP<br />

captures 36 percent more aggregate assets and 65 percent more aggregate liabilities than the<br />

SCF. With liabilities dominating assets in this quintile, however, the SIPP ends up with lower<br />

(that is, substantially more negative) aggregate net worth than the SCF. In the middle three<br />

quintiles <strong>of</strong> the net worth distribution, the SIPP captures 77 to 82 percent <strong>of</strong> the aggregate assets<br />

32

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