• Table 1 shows regressions of Swedish household portfolios’ beta for different brackets of the distribution of net wealth between 1999 and 2007 (standard errors are not reported). The table can be read as follows: if we distribute the households according to their net wealth from the less wealthy to the more wealthy ones, those, for example, that lie between 50% and 55% of the distribution (that is, they are more wealthy than the lower 50% but less wealthy than the top 45%) hold portfolios with average beta 0.748 (the first row in the table). How would you interpret the results? Could risk exposure be a factor explaining the wealth inequality? Explain your answer.

Table 1 Swedish household portfolios’ beta coefficients for different net wealth distribution percentiles

Percentiles	Beta coefficient
50–55	0.748
55–60	0.753
60–65	0.756
65–70	0.759
70–75	0.762
75–80	0.767
80–85	0.774
85–90	0.785
90–95	0.802
95–97.5	0.823
97–5-99	0.841
99–99.9	0.876
100	0.912