Blog Post

AEIdeas

A fascinating study (tweeted by Ilya Sukhar) that shows the flow of the folks with the dough:

So good news for France, right? Less income inequality, right? Some further analysis from the report:

Why do millionaires leaving a country matter? Bad sign – millionaires are often the first people to leave. They have the means to leave unlike middle class citizens. Money outflow – when millionaires leave a country, they take large amounts of money with them which impacts negatively on the local currency, local stock market and local property market. Lost jobs – millionaires employ large numbers of people. Around 30% to 40% of millionaires are business owners. Lost revenue and tax – millionaires spend a lot of money on local goods and services and pay a large amount of income tax. Pensions & benefits – millionaires are not reliant on state pensions and benefits, which makes them a relatively easy and cheap group to please. Resilient – millionaires are resilient to economic downturns and can keep an economy going during tough times. Brain drain – millionaires are normally highly skilled and highly educated. Many are also innovators.

As to that final point, France can’t afford to lose many entrepreneurs when it isn’t creating many: