December 10, 2017
Written by WID.world

New paper on the evolution of top income inequality in Germany (WID.world Working Paper 2017/18)

This new paper by  Charlotte Bartels presents new findings on the long-run dynamics of income inequality in Germany between 1871 and 2013.

Top income earners in Germany are mostly business owners who benefit from global demand for their goods. High income concentration of the industrialization period temporarily dropped in the 1920s, when hyperinflation eroded financial assets and exorbitant wage increases curtailed business profits, but then reached new heights under the Nazi regime. The German development is in contrast to other industrialized countries like France, the UK, and the US, where World War II brought a strong and lasting reduction in income concentration at the top. Since the turn of the millennium, top income shares in Germany are on the rise catching up with the levels of the UK and the US.

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