May 12, 2022: Johannes König (DIW Berlin)
Top Wealth and Income: New Data, Methods, and Estimates for Germany
The new subsample of the rich (called SOEP-P) is shown to overcome the “missing rich” problem for top wealth and income in the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). In a comprehensive distributional analysis, we quantify now credibly and transparently top wealth and income concentrations, and measure the dependence between top wealth and income. The routes to the top are examined in our new covariate-based classification analysis which establishes the substantial predictive power of inheritances and entrepreneur-ship for membership in the top 1% joint income and wealth group; this group is shown to differ noticeably from the (marginal) top1% in income or wealth.
FU contact: giacomo.corneo@fu-berlin.de