Have American Workers Always Been Low Savers? Patterns of Accumulation Among Working Households, 1885–1910

Abstract

Based on empirical patterns of annual earnings and saving from new micro-data covering a large sample of American workers around a hundred years ago, we develop a model for simulating the cross-section distribution of wealth at the turn of the twentieth century. Our methodology allows for a direct comparison with the wealth distribution from a sample of families in a comparable part of the contemporary income distribution. Our primary finding is that patterns of wealth accumulation among American workers at the turn of the century bear a striking resemblance to contemporary profiles.

Citation

James, J.A., Palumbo, M.G. and Thomas, M. (2006), "Have American Workers Always Been Low Savers? Patterns of Accumulation Among Working Households, 1885–1910", Field, A.J., Clark, G. and Sundstrom, W.A. (Ed.) Research in Economic History (Research in Economic History, Vol. 23), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 127-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0363-3268(05)23004-5