Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
美国财富与财产税研究
Wealth and Property Taxation in the United States
摘要
We study the history and geography of wealth accumulation in the United States using newly collected historical property tax records from the early 1800s onward. These records come from the administration of the General Property Tax–a tax that aspired to cover all types of property. We construct wealth series at the state, county, and national levels. At the state level, we use annual assessed values of wealth from state-level reports drawn from multiple sources. Because assessed values may differ from market values, we also require assessment ratios, defined as the ratio of assessed to market wealth. We obtain state-level assessment ratios from decadal U.S. Census wealth data (drawn from various Census reports, including those on “Wealth, Debt, and Taxation”), in which the Census carried out detailed valuation work, complemented with information on changes in assessment practices from the state reports, to build higher-frequency series of assessment ratios. The result is long-run annual wealth series for states from 1850 (or earlier, depending on the state) to 1935. We obtain national wealth series by aggregating these state series. At the county level, we use assessed values (or market values where available) from the U.S. Census wealth data for each decade, and apply either state-level or county-level assessment ratios, where available, to obtain market values of wealth for each decade from 1850 to 1930. We use these data to show, first, that the United States experienced extraordinary wealth accumulation after the Civil War and until the Great Depression. Second, spatial inequality in the United States has been large and highly persistent since the mid-1800s. We also examine the determinants of long-term wealth growth and find, among other results, that counties with a higher share of enslaved property before the Civil War or with higher wealth inequality experienced lower subsequent long-run wealth growth.
中文摘要
我们利用自19世纪初起新收集的历史财产税记录，研究美国的财富积累历史与地理分布。这些记录源自一般财产税的管理实践——该税种旨在覆盖所有类型的财产。我们构建了州、县及国家层面的财富序列。在州级层面，我们依据多来源的州级报告中的年度评估价值。鉴于评估价值可能与市场价值存在差异，我们还需评估比率，即评估财富与市场财富之比。我们从十年一次的美国人口普查财富数据（包括“财富、债务与税收”等各类普查报告）中获取州级评估比率，普查中进行了详尽的估值工作，并辅以州报告中关于评估实践变化的信息，以构建更高频率的评估比率序列。由此，我们得到了各州从1850年（或更早，视州而定）至1935年的长期年度财富序列。国家财富序列则通过汇总这些州级序列获得。在县级层面，我们利用每十年美国人口普查财富数据中的评估价值（或可得情况下的市场价值），并应用州级或县级评估比率（若可得），以获取1850年至1930年间每十年的市场财富价值。利用这些数据，我们首先展示，美国在内战后至大萧条前经历了非凡的财富积累。其次，自19世纪中叶以来，美国的空间不平等显著且高度持续。我们还探讨了长期财富增长的决定因素，发现，在其他结果中，内战前奴隶财产占比更高或财富不平等更严重的县，其后续长期财富增长较低。