Quartz: “The stratospheric wealth of the top 0.1% in the US is hard to conceptualize but a new paper (pdf) from the National Bureau of Economic Research thinks the total share held by the super wealthy is likely much higher than previously estimated. The authors Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman analyzed the work of a 2021 Princeton Economics paper which claimed that wealth held by the top 0.1% in the US was about 16% of the nation’s wealth in 2016 and concluded that “wealth is less concentrated among the very rich (the top 0.1%) than many believe…

Due to the lack of administrative data on wealth and the complex holding structures and tax-planning strategies of the ultra-wealthy, one has to combine a variety of data sources, make assumptions, and be open to revising earlier approaches when new information emerges,” wrote Saez and Zucman. Instead, a more accurate picture of the share of the nation’s wealth held by the 0.1% sits at about 20%, they say…”