Inequality Trends for Germany in the Last Two Decades: A Tale of Two Countries

Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, Dirk Krueger and Mathias Sommer
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Nicola Fuchs-Schuendeln

No 15059, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In this paper we first document inequality trends in wages, hours worked, earnings, consumption, and wealth for Germany from the last twenty years. We generally find that inequality was relatively stable in West Germany until the German unification (which happened politically in 1990 and in our data in 1991), and then trended upwards for wages and market incomes, especially after about 1998. Disposable income and consumption, on the other hand, display only a modest increase in inequality over the same period. These trends occured against the backdrop of lower trend growth of earnings, incomes and consumption in the 1990s relative to the 1980s. In the second part of the paper we further analyze the differences between East and West Germans in terms of the evolution of levels and inequality of wages, income, and consumption.

JEL-codes: D31 D33 E24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-06
Note: EFG
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Published as Nicola Fuchs-Schuendeln & Dirk Krueger & Mathias Sommer, 2009. "Code and data files for "Inequality Trends for Germany in the Last Two Decades: A Tale of Two Countries"," Computer Codes 09-195, Review of Economic Dynamics.
Published as Nicola Fuchs-Schuendeln & Dirk Krueger & Mathias Sommer, 2010. "Inequality Trends for Germany in the Last Two Decades: A Tale of Two Countries," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 13(1), pages 103-132, January.

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Journal Article: Inequality Trends for Germany in the Last Two Decades: A Tale of Two Countries (2010)
Working Paper: Inequality Trends for Germany in the Last Two Decades: A Tale of Two Countries (2009)
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