The method of computing wealth shares accruing to lowest and highest quintiles, along with the concepts of the Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient, are used in conjunction with data from the 1996 and 1999 Agricultural Resource Management Study (ARMS) survey to measure the distribution of wealth among U.S. farm operator households. Findings show that the distribution of wealth in 1996 was slightly more concentrated than in 1999, with the farm wealth component contributing significantly more toward measured concentration in both years than the nonfarm wealth component. The robustness of the findings under varied value judgments concerning society's level of aversion to wealth concentration is also examined.
