Homoploutia: Top Labor and Capital Incomes in the United States, 1950–2020

Abstract

Homoploutia describes the situation in which the same people are rich in the space of capital and labor income. We combine survey and administrative data to document the evolution of homoploutia in the United States since 1950. In 1950, 10 percent of top decile capital-income earners were also in the top decile of labor income. Today, this indicator is 30 percent. This makes the traditional division to capitalists and laborers less relevant today. We find that the increase in homoploutia accounts for 20 percent of the increase in interpersonal income inequality since 1986.