900.1
Trends in Wealth Inequality
This paper will present new estimates of inequality in household wealth in the Netherlands 1993-2011. Changes in this recent period will be connected with long-term trends in Dutch wealth inequality (from around 1900), which will be compared to trends in other Western countries. Preliminary findings are: there has been an overall tendency of partial collectivization (a shift from personal to collective wealth) and diminishing wealth inequalty in the Netherlands and other Western countries during the greater part of the twentieth century, followed by a tendency of decollectivization and growing inequality since the 1980s. The latter trend will be explained by connecting it with processes of deindustrialization, globalization and politico-institutional change. The paper will give special attention to recent changes under the impact of the financial crisis, and discuss the question to what extent national government policy can be used to modify wealth inequality.