Koen Caminada on Dr Kelder & Co: No increase in inequality
When it comes to wealth distribution in the Netherlands, you often hear that there is a huge gap. Is that true? And is this gap also widening, as is often claimed?
By definition, wealth distribution is skewed, says Professor Koen Caminada on Dutch radio programme Dr Kelder & Co. 'And that leads to a gap. But there’s no increase in inequality, although you hear that a lot in media.'
Most of an average household's wealth, if they own a house, is the housing component, Caminada explains. 'House values do rise or fall from time to time, but these are small fluctuations at a certain level of wealth inequality. If you remove home ownership from the statistics, you see one flat line that is quite stable over time. However, there is a skew in the wealth distribution. One per cent of the wealthiest people own about a quarter of the total wealth.'
The whole interview (in Dutch) with Koen Caminada is available here.