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Judith Niehues / Christoph Schröder IW-Trends No. 1 25. March 2012 Integrated Analysis of Income and Wealth
Integrated Analysis of Income and Wealth
Judith Niehues / Christoph Schröder IW-Trends No. 1 25. March 2012

Integrated Analysis of Income and Wealth

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

Distribution and poverty analyses often fail to take account of asset values. Household surveys show that on average every adult in Germany has at their disposal financial or material assets worth more than 80,000 euros. Although values for this wealth correlate positively with income, some low-income households actually have appreciable assets to fall back on. Indeed, more than a sixth of low earners could close their poverty gap for at least ten years by liquidating their assets. Since average assets continue to accrue until very late in life, taking this wealth into account lowers the relative poverty risks of the older population in particular. This result remains robust regardless of the microdata sets used.

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Current trends and challenges for distribution policy
Judith Niehues / Maximilian Stockhausen IW-Report No. 49 17. December 2024

IW Distribution Report 2024: Current trends and challenges for distribution policy

The coronavirus pandemic, the energy price crisis and the associated high inflation rates have left their marks. The fall in real wages up to the beginning of 2023 has offset some of the real wage growth of previous years: on average for 2023, the real wage ...

IW

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Helena Bach/Andrea Hammermann IW-Trends No. 4 29. December 2023

Do Companies Bound by Collective Agreements Pay Better?

When discussing the gradual erosion of collective bargaining coverage, reference is often made to the importance of collective agreements in securing high salaries for employees.

IW

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