Routes to the Top

Johannes König, Christian Schluter and Carsten Schröder

No 2066, Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: Who makes it to the top? We use the leading, socio-economic survey in Germany supplemented by extensive data on the rich to answer this question. We identify the key predictors for belonging to the top 1 percent of income, wealth, and both distributions jointly. Although we consider many, only a few traits matter: Entrepreneurship and self-employment in conjunction with a sizable inheritance of company assets is the most important covariate combination across all rich groups. Our data suggest that all top 1 percent groups, but especially the joint top 1 percent, are predominantly populated by intergenerational entrepreneurs.

Keywords: Top wealth; top income; intergenerational transfers; rich-group classification modelling; predictions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C38 D31 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 p.
Date: 2023
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