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Judith Niehues / Maximilian Stockhausen IW-Report No. 18 19. May 2021 Inequality Revisited: An International Comparison with a Special Focus on the Case of Germany

This report summarizes the latest findings on the development and levels of global income and wealth inequality and puts special emphasize on the situation in Germany.

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An International Comparison with a Special Focus on the Case of Germany
Judith Niehues / Maximilian Stockhausen IW-Report No. 18 19. May 2021

Inequality Revisited: An International Comparison with a Special Focus on the Case of Germany

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

This report summarizes the latest findings on the development and levels of global income and wealth inequality and puts special emphasize on the situation in Germany.

While global extreme poverty and global income inequality have decreased over the last decades before the Corona pandemic, inequality within many industrialized countries has increased. In Germany, net income inequality has increased after the German reunification, but since 2005 there has merely been no change in the distribution of net incomes. A similar picture can be drawn for the development of net wealth, which is generally more unequally distributed than net income. Since the end of the financial crisis, the level of net wealth inequality hast remained almost unchanged. In the last decade, both income and wealth have remarkably increased on average across all income and wealth groups. This development was accompanied by a rising share of labour income reaching levels of the 1990s again. Unfortunately, the Corona pandemic has put a temporary end to the positive income development, and it is not clear so far, what the long-run consequences of the Corona pandemic will be. In the short-run, it is especially a threat to the very poor in developing countries and it is a large challenge in the fight against global extreme poverty.

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An International Comparison with a Special Focus on the Case of Germany
Judith Niehues / Maximilian Stockhausen IW-Report No. 18 19. May 2021

Inequality Revisited: An International Comparison with a Special Focus on the Case of Germany

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

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Matthias Diermeier / Madeleine F. Fischer / Judith Niehues in SOEP papers External Publication 20. March 2023

Punching up or Punching down?: How Stereotyping the Rich and the Poor Impacts Redistributive Preferences in Germany

Redistribution and the welfare state have been linked by academic discourse to narratives that portray specific societal groups as ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving’. The present analysis contributes to this scholarship in a twofold manner.

IW

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Maximilian Stockhausen IW-Report No. 63 26. November 2022

IW Distribution Report 2022: Influence of structural changes on income distribution

Academization, immigration and demographic change are defining issues of our time and influence the distribution of income. This year's report therefore focuses on the question of which long-term structural changes in the net income distribution are associated ...

IW

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