THE TOP 1 PERCENT IN INTERNATIONAL AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.pdfVIP

NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES THE TOP 1 PERCENT IN INTERNATIONAL AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Facundo Alvaredo Anthony B. Atkinson Thomas Piketty Emmanuel Saez Working Paper 19075 /papers/w19075 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 May 2013 This paper is in preparation for the Journal of Economic Perspectives. We are grateful to the editor, David Autor, the Managing Editor, Timothy Taylor, and Co-editors, Chang-Tai Hseih and Ulrike Malmendier for most helpful comments. Financial support from the MacArthur foundation, the Center for Equitable Growth at UC Berkeley, the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, and the ESRC-DFID Joint Fund is thankfully acknowledged. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer- reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications. © 2013 by Facundo Alvaredo, Anthony B. Atkinson, Thomas Piketty, and Emmanuel Saez. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. The Top 1 Percent in International and Historical Perspective Facundo Alvaredo, Anthony B. Atkinson, Thomas Piketty, and Emmanuel Saez NBER Working Paper No. 19075 May 2013 JEL No.