A micro perspective on r > g

By exploiting large-scale administrative data on estimated gross and net personal wealth in Norway from 2010 to 2018, this paper establishes the first microlevel analysis of the difference between the real return on wealth and the real growth rate of total pretax income across the entire net wealth distribution. We show that for the top 40% of the distribution, aggregate R − G underestimates its micro counterpart r − g, while the opposite happens for the bottom 60%, indicating that micro r−g qualifies as a more precise measure to analyze the dynamics of income and wealth inequality thoroughly.