Income and wealth distribution of the richest Norwegian individuals: An inequality analysis

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the income and wealth distribution of Norway's richest individuals from 2010 to 2013, revealing Pareto law adherence with stable exponents, thereby providing insights into economic inequality among the top earners.

Contribution

It applies empirical data to demonstrate that the income and wealth of Norway's richest follow Pareto distributions with consistent exponents over multiple years.

Findings

Income and wealth follow Pareto distributions.

Stable Pareto exponents around 2.3 for income.

Stable Pareto exponents around 1.5 for wealth.

Abstract

Using the empirical data from the Norwegian tax office, we analyse the wealth and income of the richest individuals in Norway during the period 2010--2013. We find that both annual income and wealth level of the richest individuals are describable using the Pareto law. We find that the robust mean Pareto exponent over the four-year period to be $\approx 2.3$ for income and $\approx 1.5$ for wealth.