Top Incomes in Germany, 1871-2014

Charlotte Bartels

No 11838, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This study provides new evidence on top income shares in Germany from the period of industrialization to the present. Income concentration was high in the nineteenth century, dropped sharply after World War I and during the hyperinflation years of the 1920s, and increased rapidly throughout the Nazi period beginning in the 1930s. Following the end of World War II, German top income shares returned to 1920s levels. The German pattern stands in sharp contrast to developments in France, the UK, and the US, where World War II brought a sizeable and lasting reduction in top income shares. Since the turn of the millennium, income concentration in Germany has been on the rise and is today among the highest in Europe. Regression analysis reveals that rising top income shares are positively associated with the capital share, trade and technological change.

Keywords: top incomes; income distribution; income inequality; welfare state; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 J31 N30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 77 pages
Date: 2018-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-his and nep-lma
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic History, 2019, 79 (3), 669-707

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp11838.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Top Incomes in Germany, 1871–2014 (2019)
Journal Article: Top Incomes in Germany, 1871-2014 (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11838

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().