Stakeholding and Individual Ownership Accounts

Abstract

There has been a revival of interest in the UK in asset egalitarianism in general and individual ownership accounts in particular in recent years. One reason is that inequality appears to be increasing once again. The new inequality is particularly marked in the ownership of assets. Assets are a stock of resources accumulated over the past and held in different forms such as savings accounts, housing, stocks and shares and pensions. Wealth refers to the net worth of assets held by an individual or household (for example, housing) and may include non-marketable forms of wealth such as pension rights. Financial wealth refers to non-pension and non-housing assets, including deposit accounts, savings and investments but not including balances in current accounts or the value of life insurance policies.

This chapter draws on the more detailed analysis in Gavin Kelly and Rachel Lissauer (2000).