Top Incomes in Germany 1871-2013

Charlotte Bartels

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: This study provides new homogeneous series on top income shares in Ger- many from the early phase of industrialization until present. German income tax statistics o_er the unique possibility to go back as far as 1871 and produce series for eight German states ranging from heavily industrializing Prussia or Saxony to mostly agrarian Baden or Wurttemberg. Top income earners in Germany are mostly business owners who bene_t from global demand for their goods. High income concentration of the industrialization period temporarily dropped in the 1920s, when hyperination eroded _nancial assets and exorbi- tant wage increases curtailed business pro_ts, but then reached new heights under the Nazi regime. The German development is in contrast to other in- dustrialized 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.

Keywords: Inequality; measurement; Germany; distribution; concentration; fiscal data; top incomes; Income Inequality; Income Distribution; Top Incomes; Welfare State (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02797481v1
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