I was not implying that the current Fed surveys are half-baked. Avery's was much criticized (he is a friend of mine and I heard a lot of moaning). They have gotten their act together since those initial efforts. Barkley Rosser PS: You still haven't answered the main question: Is it not true, in general globally, that income distribution studies are much more frequently done and much more available than wealth distribution studies? -----Original Message----- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Saturday, August 19, 2000 3:43 PM Subject: Re: weatlh and income ginis
>J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. wrote:
>
>>Actually, this does support my main point, that
>>income distribution gets estimated much more than
>>wealth distribution. The status of wealth distribution
>>estimation in the US, a Fed survey every three years,
>>is about where income distribution studies are in most
>>LDCs, a half-baked survey every several years.
>
>There's nothing half-baked about the Fed's Survey of Consumer
>Finances, though; not sure if you're implying there is. It's much
>more rigorous than the Census Current Population Survey, involving a
>75-minute interview backed up by financial records - compared with
>the CPS's almost casual questions with answers based strictly on
>recall. Rich people are heavily oversampled in the SCF.
>
>Doug
>