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Free keywords:
Forbes 400; Super-rich; Great fortunes; Social stratification; Inheritance
Abstract:
The richest 1 percent in the United States is a largely unexplored group, despite its everincreasing
share of the national wealth. The Forbes roster of the richest Americans has
often been used to demonstrate the fading of nineteenth-century hereditary fortunes.
Based on full panel data from the annual American Forbes 400 ranking (1982e2013), this
article goes beyond previous work by examining not only the sources of the very wealthy
but also the factors that increase or decrease the likelihood of remaining listed among the
American super-rich and the typical patterns of mobility.We find that heirs are more likely
to remain listed in the Forbes 400 roster than self-made entrepreneurs, all other things
being equal. While scions of great wealth are less likely to drop completely from the list,
they are nevertheless more likely to fall gradually in ranking than are self-made multimillionaires.
Even though entrepreneurship matters increasingly for becoming super-rich,
we conclude that it is first and foremost the ability of rich family dynasties to retain control
over corporations and to access sophisticated financial advice that makes fortunes last.
