Distributional accounts: a tool for monitoring the distribution of household wealth and debt components

Abstract

Rationale This article presents annual distributions of aggregate wealth and debt components of Spanish households by income and wealth. Distributions for the period 2002 to 2020 are estimated drawing on the seven available waves of the Spanish Survey of Household Finances, while those for the latest period (2021-2022) are predictions. Takeaways •Distributional wealth and debt accounts allow us to monitor the distribution of aggregate wealth and debt among different groups of households when microeconomic data are lacking. •For the period 2020 to 2022, the model estimates that households in the bottom two quintiles of the income distribution saw their share of total housing wealth and debt for purposes other than house purchase rise, by 0.6 pp and 0.4 pp, respectively. By contrast, their share of bank deposits, shares and debt for house purchase is estimated to have fallen, by 0.2 pp, 0.1 pp and 0.3 pp, respectively. •Also for the period 2020 to 2022, the model estimates that households in the top income decile saw their share of total housing wealth and debt for purposes other than house purchase fall, by 0.5 pp and 1.1 pp, respectively, while their share of bank deposits and debt for house purchase is estimated to have risen, by 0.5 pp and 1.2 pp, respectively.