Planet Money · Friday, September 25, 2026
A team of economists, including Eric Swick, Owen Zidar, and Danny Yagan, utilized Treasury Department tax data to gain an unprecedented understanding of the income and wealth of private business owners. Their research, initially aimed at understanding tax payments, revealed a significant blind spot in previous analyses of wealth in America.
“But in 2014, Eric Swick, and these two other economists, Owen Zidar and Danny Yagan, they got the assignment of a lifetime. One that would ultimately give us an unprecedented look at the income and wealth of private business owners.”
“At first, the Treasury Department tasked them with kind of a simple question. What are these private business owners paying in taxes?”
“We referred to ourselves as the tax ninjas.”