Who Owns Stock in American Corporations?

• Published in: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 158; no. 4; pp. 372 - 391
• Main Author: WOLFF, EDWARD N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 01.12.2014; University of Pennsylvania Press
• Subjects: Corporate stock; From the Symposium on American Corporations 16 November 2013; Households; Houses; Housing prices; Income inequality; Median income; Mutual funds; Net worth; Pension plans; Securities markets; Stock markets; Stock ownership; Stock prices; Stock shares; Wolff, Edward N; United States > US
• ISSN: 0003-049X

Before looking at the actual wealth data, it might be helpful to say a few words about what happened to both house and stock prices over the last two and half decades. Although the median house price in real terms was virtually the same in 2001 as in 1989, house prices suddenly took off from 2001-2007, with the median sales price rising by 19% in real terms. Then, the Great Recession hit and home prices plummeted by 24% in real terms from 2007-2010. This drop was followed by a partial recovery, with median house prices rising by 7.8% in real terms through September 2013, though still way below the median house price level in 2007. In contrast to the housing market, the stock market boomed during the 1990s. On the basis of the S&P 500 Index, stock prices in real terms surged 171% between 1989 and 2001.