Household Wealth Inequalities in the wake of the Greek Debt Crisis – Apostolos Fasianos

• Despite the renowned interest in wealth disparities, the distribution of wealth in Greece is largely understudied.
• This study maps the levels, dynamics, and composition of household wealth using data from the three waves of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey for Greece for the period after the debt crisis of 2009-10 till 2017.
• The evidence suggests that the richest 1% of the population holds roughly as much wealth as the poorest 50%, while the richest 10% holds about four times the wealth of the poorest 50%.
• Most inequality indicators employed indicate increasing trends in wealth disparities between 2009 and 2017.
• During this period, average and median wealth holdings decreased by about one third, and the share of financially fragile households increased by about 20%.
• Estimates from factor inequality decompositions suggest that, although relatively evenly distributed, housing asset holdings explain much of the increase in overall wealth inequality in Greece, followed by self-employment business equity; financial assets play a negligible role.
• Financial wealth inequality is much more pronounced than housing wealth inequality in Greece.
• The findings of the paper carry important implications for the design of appropriate policies aiming at reducing wealth inequalities and strengthening financial resilience.

Read here in pdf the Working Paper by Apostolos Fasianos, Research Fellow, ELIAMEP; Lecturer, Brunel University London; A.G. Leventis Research Chair Postdoctoral Research Fellow, ELIAMEP (2020-21).