Replication: What Happened to the Incomes of the Rich during the Great Levelling? Evidence from Swedish Individual-level Data, 1909–1950

We use individual-level income data, from archived taxation lists, to study top-income earners in Sweden from 1909 to 1950. Using information on 21,055 individual tax-payers in two elite areas in greater Stockholm, we show that top incomes fell in real terms over this period, at a stable pace without obvious connection to the Depression or the World Wars. The peak of inequality was related to the early stages of a Only<br> globalized economy with Schumpeterian entrepreneurial profits; the decline was related to sharpened competition, driving down profits, as well as increased regulation, expansion of education, and eroded position of professionals.