Business Incomes at the Top

33 Pages Posted: 4 Sep 2020

See all articles by Wojciech Kopczuk

Wojciech Kopczuk

Columbia University - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - Department of Economics; Columbia University - School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Eric Zwick

University of Chicago - Finance

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: August 31, 2020

Abstract

Business income constitutes a large and increasing share of income and wealth at the top of the distribution. We discuss how tax policy treats and shapes how businesses are organized and how they distribute economic gains to owners, with the focus on closely-held and pass-through firms. These considerations influence whether and how labor and capital income is observed in economic data and feed into research controversies regarding the measurement of inequality and the progressivity of the tax code. We discuss the importance of these issues in the US, and highlight that limited evidence from other countries suggests that they are likely to be important elsewhere.

JEL Classification: D31,D33,E25,H24,H25,H32

Suggested Citation

Kopczuk, Wojciech and Zwick, Eric, Business Incomes at the Top (August 31, 2020). University of Chicago, Becker Friedman Institute for Economics Working Paper No. 2020-118, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3683902 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3683902

Wojciech Kopczuk

Columbia University - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - Department of Economics ( email )

420 W. 118th Street
New York, NY 10027
United States

Columbia University - School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA)

420 West 118th Street
New York, NY 10027
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Eric Zwick (Contact Author)

University of Chicago - Finance ( email )

5807 S. Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
United States

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