On the World Economic Elite

Economic elites have not received enough attention in the economic literature. The obvious reason is limited access of information. This paper contributes to the contemporary knowledge in three ways. First, it uses a new unique data set on the world economic elite covering 2002-2014; second, it develops a method to measure the degree of circulation of elites; and finally provides a theoretical explanation of the observed facts. The empirical finding is that the world economic elite shows a low degree of circulation. In spite of so much globalization, liberalization, long-term economic growth, and a recent grand economic recession, the core of the elites remain mostly unchanged. Our theory is able to explain this fact and makes the distinction between market competition and elite competition, which is a kind of meta-competition. Thus the following relationship is derived from the theory: The low circulation of elites, namely, the low meta-competition, underlies the oligopolistic market structures that we observe in the real world.

Keywords

Economic elites, Elite competition, Wealth concentration

JEL Classification

E1, E5, E6