How Recessions Have Affected Household Net Worth, 1990-2017: Uneven Experiences by Wealth Quantile

Abstract

Governors of the Federal Reserve System, tracks household balance sheets and other characteristics. Plotting the data allows us to compare the evolution of the net worth of households during and after the past three recessions (that is, before the current recession).1 Here, households are divided into quantiles according to wealth: the top 1%, the next 9%, the next 40%, and the bottom 50%. These quantiles were affected differently, which can be explained by the asset composition of household wealth,2 most notably during and after the “Great Recession.” Figure 1 shows gains in the nominal household net worth of all wealth quantiles during the eight-month recession from July 1990 to March 1991. By the time that recession ended, the top 1% and the bottom 50% of households had gained slightly more than 10% in their net worth. All of the wealth quantiles gained some net worth out to 20 quarters (5 years) after the business cycle peak, although the gains for the bottom 50% of households were uneven. How Recessions Have Affected Household Net Worth, 1990-2017: Uneven Experiences by Wealth Quantile