DC Accepted Papers Paper:
Importing Inequality: The Rise of Foreign Top Earners in the UK
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Top incomes have risen dramatically in Anglo-Saxon countries in recent decades, while such growth has been more modest in most continental European countries (Piketty and Saez 2003, Atkinson 2005). Moreover, the US, UK, Canada, and Australia are magnet destinations for high skilled migrants. In 2010, they received nearly 70 percent of high skilled migrants to OECD countries (Kerr et al. 2016). Using administrative data on the universe of UK tax filers, we empirically assess the increasing prevalence of foreigners among high income individuals.
In particular, our paper provides three main findings. First, foreigners are over-represented at the top of the income distribution in the cross-section. Among the Top 0.01 percent of individuals, slightly less than 30 percent are foreigners (almost double the population-wide average). Second, a large part of the level and growth of top income shares is driven by migration. Third, growth in UK top incomes is driven by rising labor income, consistent with Smith et al. (2019) for the US.
In particular, our paper provides three main findings. First, foreigners are over-represented at the top of the income distribution in the cross-section. Among the Top 0.01 percent of individuals, slightly less than 30 percent are foreigners (almost double the population-wide average). Second, a large part of the level and growth of top income shares is driven by migration. Third, growth in UK top incomes is driven by rising labor income, consistent with Smith et al. (2019) for the US.
