Comparison of Piketty and Saez’s results with Sommeiller and Price’s U.S. results
From Table 1. Ratio of top 1% income to bottom 99% income, U.S. and by state and region, 2013
| Source | Average income of the bottom 99% | Average income of the top 1% | Top-to-bottom ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sommeiller and Price | $45,567 | $1,153,293 | 25.3 |
| Piketty and Saez | $44,997 | $1,119,315 | 24.9 |
From Table 4. Income threshold of top 1% and top .01%, and average income of top .01%, U.S. and by state and region, 2013
| Source | Income threshold of top 1% | Income threshold of top .01% | Average income of top .01% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sommeiller and Price | $389,436 | $8,325,378 | $26,106,656 |
| Piketty and Saez | $391,960 | $8,460,500 | $24,988,251 |
From Table 7. Income growth from 2009 to 2013, overall and for the top 1% and bottom 99%, U.S. and by state and region
| Average real income growth | Share of total growth (or loss) captured by top 1% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source | Overall | Top 1% | Bottom 99% | |
| Sommeiller and Price | 3.7% | 17.4% | 0.7% | 85.1% |
| Piketty and Saez | 3.5% | 14.7% | 1.0% | 76.3% |
From Table 8. Income growth from 1979 to 2007, overall and for the top 1% and bottom 99%, U.S. and by state and region
| Average real income growth | Share of total growth (or loss) captured by top 1% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source | Overall | Top 1% | Bottom 99% | |
| Sommeiller and Price | 36.9% | 200.5% | 18.9% | 53.9% |
| Piketty and Saez | 37.3% | 224.0% | 16.6% | 59.8% |
From Table 10. Top 1% share of all income, U.S. and by state and region, 1928, 1979, 2007
| Change in income share of the top 1% (percentage points) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source | 1928 | 1979 | 2007 | 1928–1979 | 1979–2007 |
| Sommeiller and Price | 23.4% | 9.9% | 21.8% | -13.4 | 11.8 |
| Piketty and Saez | 23.9% | 10.0% | 23.5% | -14.0 | 13.5 |
Note: The income shares reported in Table 10 are indexed to Piketty and Saez (2015) as requested for submission of our state-level estimates to the World Wealth and Income Database. The income shares reported above are the top income shares from our analysis before indexing to the national estimates.
Source: Authors’ analysis of state-level tax data from Sommeiller (2006) extended to 2013 using state-level data from the Internal Revenue Service SOI Tax Stats (various years), and Piketty and Saez (2012)
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