Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-10T05:51:34.046Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Top Incomes in Germany, 1871–2014

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2019

Charlotte Bartels*
Affiliation:
Charlotte Bartels is affiliated with the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the Uppsala Center for Fiscal Studies (UCFS) and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). E-mail: cbartels@diw.de.

Abstract

This study provides new evidence on top income shares in Germany from industrialization to the present. Income concentration was high in the nineteenth century, dropped sharply after WWI and during the hyperinflation years of the 1920s, then increased rapidly throughout the Nazi period beginning in the 1930s. Following the end of WWII, German top income shares returned to 1920s levels. The German pattern stands in contrast to developments in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where WWII 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. The capital share is consistently positively associated with income concentration, whereas growth, technological change, trade, unions, and top tax rates are positively associated in some periods and negative in others.

Type
Article
Copyright
© The Economic History Association 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

A set of Appendix Tables supplementing this article is available online at https://sites.google.com/site/charlottedsbartels/publications. I thank Thomas Piketty and Daniel Waldenström for most helpful advice throughout the research. Furthermore, this paper benefited from the comments of Thilo Albers, Stefan Bach, Timm Bönke, Gerd Hardach, Hartmut Kaelble, Felix Kersting, Carsten Schröder, and seminar participants at the Paris School of Economics, University of Göttingen, University of Bonn, University of Bremen, Berlin School of Economics, and Humboldt University Berlin. A number of research assistants provided outstanding support in the data collection, most notably Stefan Klocke, Theresa Neef, and Patrick Richter. Financial support from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.

References

REFERENCES

Aaberge, Rolf, and Atkinson, Anthony B.. “Top Incomes in Norway.” In Top Incomes: A Global Perspective, edited by Atkinson, Anthony B. and Piketty, Thomas, 448–81. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Autor, David. “Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings.” In Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume 4b, edited by Card, David, and Ashenfelter, Orley, 1043–171. Amsterdam: Elsevier-North, 2011.Google Scholar
Alvaredo, Facundo, Chancel, Lucas, Piketty, Thomas, et al.World Inequality Report 2018.”” World Inequality Lab, 2017. Available at https://wid.world/world-inequality-lab/.Google Scholar
Alvaredo, Facundo, and Saez, Emmanuel. “Income and Wealth Concentration in Spain from a Historical and Fiscal Perspective.Journal of the European Economic Association 7, no. 5 (2009): 1140–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, Anthony B.Measuring Top Incomes: Methodological Issues.” In Top Incomes over the 20th Century: A Contrast Between Continental European and English-Speaking Countries, edited by Atkinson, Anthony B. and Piketty, Thomas, 1842. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Atkinson, Anthony B.Factor Shares: The Principal Problem of Political Economy?Oxford Review of Economic Policy 25, no. 1 (2009): 316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, Anthony B., Piketty, Thomas, and Saez, Emmanuel. “Top Incomes in the Long Run of History.Journal of Economic Literature 49, no. 1 (2011): 371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, Anthony B., and Salverda, Wiemer. “Top Incomes in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom over the 20th Century.Journal of the European Economic Association 3, no. 4 (2005): 883913.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Auerbach, Alan J., and Poterba, James. “Capital Gains Taxation in the United States: Realization, Revenue, and Rhetoric.” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1988, no. 2 (1988): 595–637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bach, Stefan. “Has German Business Income Taxation Raised Too Little Revenue over the Last Decades?” DIW Berlin Discussion Papers No. 1303, Berlin, Germany, May 2013.Google Scholar
Bach, Stefan, Corneo, Giacomo, and Steiner, Viktor. “From Bottom to Top: The Entire Income Distribution in Germany, 1992–2003.Review of Income and Wealth 55, no. 2 (2009): 303–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, Charlotte. “Replication: Top Incomes in Germany, 1871–2014.Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-07-10. https://doi.org/10.3886/E110664V1.Google Scholar
Bartels, Charlotte, and Jenderny, Katharina. “The Role of Capital Income for Top Income Shares in Germany.” WID.world Working Paper Nr. 1/2015, World Top Incomes Database, 2015.Google Scholar
Bengtsson, Erik, and Waldenström, Daniel. “Capital Shares and Income Inequality: Evidence from the Long Run.Journal of Economic History 78, no. 3 (2018): 712–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borchardt, Knut. Wachstum, Krisen und Handlungsspielräume in der Wirtschaft - Studien zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burda, Michael, and Hunt, Jennifer. “From Reunification to Economic Integration: Productivity and the Labor Market in Eastern Germany.” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2001, no. 2 (2001): 1–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dell, Fabien. “Top Incomes in Germany and Switzerland over the Twentieth Century.Journal of the European Economic Association 3, no. 2–3 (2005): 412–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dell, Fabien. “Top Incomes in Germany throughout the Twentieth Century 1891–1998. In Top Incomes over the Twentieth Century: A Contrast Between Continental European and English-Speaking Countries, edited by Atkinson, Anthony B. and Piketty, Thomas, 365425. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Dell, Fabien. L’Allemagne Inégale: Inégalités de revenus et de patrimoine en Allemagne, dynamique d’accumulation du capital et taxation de Bismarck à Schröder 1870– 2005, 2008.Google Scholar
Dieterici, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm. “Ueber die Resultate der Classensteuer im Preußischen Staate.” In Mittheilungen des statistischen Bureau’s in Berlin, Volume 1, 103–12. Berlin: C. S. Mittler und Sohn, 1849.Google Scholar
Dustmann, Christian, Ludsteck, Johannes, and Schönberg, Uta. “Revisiting the German Wage Structure.Quarterly Journal of Economics 124, no. 2 (2009): 843–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eichengreen, Barry, and Ritschl, Albrecht. “Understanding West German Economic Growth in the 1950s.Cliometrica 3, no. 3 (2009): 191–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engel, Ernst. “Die Ergebnisse der Classensteuer, der classifizierten Einkommensteuer und der Mahl- und Schlachtsteuer im Preussischen Staate.” In Zeitschrift des königlich preußischen statistischen Bureaus, Volume 8, 2584, 1868.Google Scholar
Feldstein, Martin. “The Effect of Marginal Tax Rates on Taxable Income: A Panel Study of the 1986 Tax Reform Act.Journal of Political Economy 103, no. 3 (1995): 551–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, Thomas, and Voth, Hans-Joachim. “Betting on Hitler - The Value of Political Connections in Nazi Germany.Quarterly Journal of Economics 123, no. 1 (2008): 101–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fremdling, Rainer. Eisenbahnen und deutsches Wirtschaftswachstum: 1840–1879: ein Beitrag zur Entwicklung und zur Theorie der Infrastruktur. Gesellschaft für Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 1985.Google Scholar
Fremdling, Rainer. “German National Accounts for the 19th and Early 20th Century: A Critical Assessment.Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 75, no. 3 (1988): 339–57.Google Scholar
Fremdling, Rainer, and Staeglin, Reiner. “Output, National Income, and Expenditure: An Input-Output Table of Germany in 1936.European Review of Economic History 18, no. 4 (2014): 371–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Förster, Michael, and Tóth, István. “Cross-Country Evidence of the Multiple Causes of Inequality Changes in the OECD Area.Handbook of Income Distribution 2 (2015): 1729–842.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garbinti, Bertrand, Goupille-Lebret, Jonathan, and Piketty, Thomas. “Income Inequality in France, 1900–2014: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts (DINA).Journal of Public Economics 162 (2018): 6377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geisenberger, Siegfried, and Müller, Heinz. Die Einkommenstruktur in verschiedenen deutschen Ländern, 1874–1914. Berlin, Germany: Duncker & Humblot, 1972.Google Scholar
León, Gómez, María, , and de Jong, Herman. “Inequality in Turbulent Times: Income Distribution in Germany and Britain, 1900–50.” Economic History Review, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goolsbee, Austan. “What Happens When You Tax the Rich? Evidence from Executive Compensation.Journal of Political Economy 108, no. 2 (2000): 352–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, Oliver. “Does Industrialization Push up Inequality? New Evidence on the Kuznets Curve from Nineteenth-Century Prussian Tax Statistics.” Discussion Papers in Economic and Social History No. 48, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, September 2002.Google Scholar
Grumbach, Franz. “Statistische Untersuchungen über die Entwicklung der Einkommensverteilung in Deutschland.” Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Münster, 1957.Google Scholar
Grunenberg, Nina. Die Wundertäter. Netzwerke der deutschen Wirtschaft 1942–1966. München, Germany: Siedler, 2006.Google Scholar
Gutberlet, Theresa. “Cheap Coal, Market Access and Industry Location in Germany 1846 to 1882.” Working paper, University of Arizona, 2012.Google Scholar
Hardach, Gerd. “Sparen in der ‘Nullzinsphase’. Privatanleger und der Kapitalmarkt in Deutschland im Ersten Weltkrieg.“ IBF Paper Series 02-17, Institute for Banking and Financial History, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2017.Google Scholar
Helfferich, Karl. Deutschlands Volkswohlstand 1888–1913 (7 ed.). Berlin, Germany: Georg Stilke, 1917.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Walther. Das Wachstum der deutschen Wirtschaft seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag, 1965.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffmann, Walther, and Müller, J. Heinz. Das deutsche Volkseinkommen 1851–1957. Tübingen, Germany: J.C.B. Mohr, 1959.Google Scholar
Holtfrerich, Carl-Ludwig. Quantitative Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Ruhrkohlebergbaus im 19. Jahrhundert. Eine Führungssektoranalyse. Dortmund, Germany: Ardey, 1973.Google Scholar
Holtfrerich, Carl-Ludwig. Die deutsche Inflation 1914–1923 - Ursachen und Folgen in internationaler Perspektive. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter, 1980.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IMF.Globalization and Inequality.” In World Economic Outlook 2007, 3165. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 2007.Google Scholar
Jäntti, Markus, and Jenkins, Stephen. “The Impact of Macroeconomic Conditions on Income Inequality.Journal of Economic Inequality 8, no. 2 (2010): 221–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaelble, Hartmut. “Sozialstruktur und Lebensweisen deutscher Unternehmer.Scripta Mercaturae 24, no. 1/2 (1990): 132–78.Google Scholar
Kaelble, Hartmut. Mehr Reichtum, mehr Armut - Soziale Ungleichheit in Europa vom 20. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Frankfurt a.M., Germany: Campus, 2017.Google Scholar
Kaelble, Hartmut, and Volkmann, Heinrich. “Streiks und Einkommensverteilung im späten Kaiserreich.” In Arbeit, Mobilität, Partizipation, Protest - Gesellschaftlicher Wandel in Deutschland im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, edited by Bergmann, J., 159–98. Opladen, Germany: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1986.Google Scholar
Karabarbounis, Loukas, and Neiman, Brent. “The Global Decline of the Labor Share.Quarterly Journal of Economics 129, no. 1 (2014): 61103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ketterle, Jürgen. Die Einkommensteuer in Deutschland - Modernisierung und Anpassung einer direkten Steuer von 1890/91 bis 1920. Köln, Germany: Botermann und Botermann Verlag, 1994.Google Scholar
Keynes, John M. The Economic Consequences of the Peace. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920.Google Scholar
Kocka, Jürgen. Klassengesellschaft im Krieg - Deutsche Sozialgeschichte 1914–1918. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korom, Philipp, Lutter, Mark, and Beckert, Jens. “The Enduring Importance of Family Wealth: Evidence from the Forbes 400, 1982 to 2013.Social Science Research 65 (2017): 7595.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuczynski, Jürgen. Die Geschichte der Lage der Arbeiter in Deutschland von 1789 bis in die Gegenwart, Band 1. Frankfurt a.M., Germany: Tribüne, 1947.Google Scholar
Kuznets, Simon. “Economic Growth and Income Inequality.American Economic Review 45, no. 1 (1955): 128.Google Scholar
Madsen, Jakob B.Technology Spillover through Trade and TFP Convergence: 135 Years of Evidence for the OECD Countries.Journal of International Economics 72, no. 2 (2007): 464–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OECD. Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising? Paris, France: OECD Publishing, 2011.Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas. Les hauts revenus en France au XXe siècle: Inégalités et redistributions, 1901–1998. Paris, France: Grasset, 2001.Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas. “Income Inequality in France, 1901–1998.Journal of Political Economy 111, no. 5 (2003): 1004–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piketty, Thomas. Capital in the 21st Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas, and Saez, Emmanuel. “Income Inequality in the United States, 1913– 1998.Quarterly Journal of Economics 118, no. 1 (2003): 141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piketty, Thomas, and Saez, Emmanuel. “Income and Wage Inequality in the United States, 1913–2002.” In Top Incomes Over the Twentieth Century: A Contrast Between Continental European and English-Speaking Countries, edited by Atkinson, Anthony B. and Piketty, Thomas, 141225. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas, Saez, Emmanuel, and Stantcheva, Stefanie. “Optimal Taxation of Top Labor Incomes: A Tale of Three Elasticities.American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 6, no. 1 (2014): 230–71.Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas, Saez, Emmanuel, and Zucman, Gabriel. “Distributional National Accounts: Methods and Estimates for the United States.Quarterly Journal of Economics 133, no. 2 (2018): 553609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piketty, Thomas, and Zucman, Gabriel. “Capital Is Back: Wealth-Income Ratios in Rich Countries 1700–2010.Quarterly Journal of Economics 129, no. 3 (2014): 1255–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollard, Sidney. Peaceful Conquest: The Industrialization of Europe 1760–1970. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Preussisches Statistisches Landesamt (ed.). Zeitschrift des Preussischen Statistischen Landesamts 1919, Volume 59. Berlin, Germany: Verlag des Preussischen Statistischen Landesamt, 1920.Google Scholar
Procopovitch, Sergei. “The Distribution of National Income.Economic Journal 36, no. 141 (1926): 6982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rahlf, Thomas (ed.). Deutschland in Daten. Zeitreihen zur Historischen Statistik. Bonn, Germany: Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, 2015.Google Scholar
Ritschl, Albrecht. “Deficit Spending in the Nazi Recovery, 1933–1938: A Critical Reassessment.Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 16 (2002a): 559–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritschl, Albrecht. Deutschlands Krise und Konjunktur, 1924–1934. Binnenkonjunktur, Auslandsverschuldung und Reparationsproblem zwischen Dawes-Plan und Transfersperre. Berlin, Germany: Akademie-Verlag, 2002b.Google Scholar
Ritschl, Albrecht. “The Pity of Peace: Germany’s Economy at War, 1914-1918 and Beyond.” In The Economics of World War I, edited by Broadberry, Stephan and Harrison, Mark, 4176. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritschl, Albrecht, and Spoerer, Mark. “Das Bruttosozialprodukt in Deutschland nach den amtlichen Volkseinkommens- und Sozialproduktsstatistiken 1901–1995.Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook 38, no. 2 (1997): 2754.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roine, Jesper, Vlachos, Jonas, and Waldenström, Daniel. “The Long-Run Determinants of Inequality: What Can We Learn from Top Income Data?Journal of Public Economics 93 (2009): 974–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roine, Jesper, and Waldenström, Daniel. “The Evolution of Top Incomes in an Egalitarian Society: Sweden, 1903–2004.Journal of Public Economics 92, no. 1–2 (2008): 366–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roine, Jesper, and Waldenström, Daniel. “Top Incomes in Sweden over the Twentieth Century.” In Top Incomes: A Global Perspective, edited by Atkinson, Anthony B. and Piketty, Thomas, 299370. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Rubolino, Enrico, and Waldenström, Daniel. “Trends and Gradients in Top Tax Elasticities: Cross-Country Evidence, 1900–2014.International Tax and Public Finance 26, no. 3 (2019): 4572014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saez, Emmanuel. “Top Incomes in the United States and Canada over the Twentieth Century.Journal of the European Economic Association 3, no. 2–3 (2005): 402–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saez, Emmanuel. “Taxing the Rich More: Preliminary Evidence from the 2013 Tax Increase.Tax Policy and the Economy 31, no. 1 (2017): 71120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmoller, Gustav. Die Einkommensverteilung in alter und neuer Zeit. Jahrbuch für Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volkswirtschaft im Deutschen Reich 19 (1895): 10671094.Google Scholar
Schneider, Michael. Kleine Geschichte der Gewerkschaften. Ihre Entwicklung in Deutschland von den Anfängen bis heute. Bonn, Germany: Dietz, 1989.Google Scholar
Schröder, Michael, and Westerheide, Peter. Wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftliche Bedeutung von Familienunternehmen. Mannheim, Germany: ZEW Wirtschaftsanalysen 97, 2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwarz, Norbert. Einkommensentwicklung in Deutschland - Konzepte und Ergebnisse der Volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnungen. Wirtschaft und Statistik 3/2008, 197–206. Wiesbaden, Germany: Statistisches Bundesamt, 2008.Google Scholar
Slemrod, Joel. “Income Creation or Shifting? Behavioral Responses to the Tax Reform Act of 1986.American Economic Review 85, no. 2 (1995): 175–80.Google Scholar
Sombart, Werner. Die deutsche Volkswirtschaft im 19. Jahrhundert (4 ed.). Berlin, Germany: Georg Bondi, 1919.Google Scholar
Spoerer, Mark. Von Scheingewinnen zum Rüstungsboom - Die Eigenkapitalrentabilität der deutschen Industrieaktiengesellschaften 1925–1941. Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1996.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt. Statistisches Jahrbuch, Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnungen, Chapter 23. Wiesbaden, Germany: Federal Statistical Office of Germany, 1955.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt. Bevölkerung und Wirtschaft 1872–1972. Stuttgart, Germany: W. Kohlhammer, 1972.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt. Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnungen - Revidierte Ergebnisse 1950 bis 1990. Number S 15, Fachserie 18. Wiesbaden, Germany: Federal Statistical Office of Germany, 1991.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt. “National Accounts. Gross Domestic Product in Germany in Accordance with ESA 1995 - Methods and Sources.” Number S 22 Fachserie 18. Wiesbaden, Germany, Federal Statistical Office of Germany, 2009.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt. Statistisches Jahrbuch, Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnungen, Chapter 12. Wiesbaden, Germany: Federal Statistical Office of Germany, 2016a.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt. Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnungen. Inlandsproduktberechnung, Lange Reihen ab 1970. Fachserie 18, Reihe 1.5. Wiesbaden, Germany: Federal Statistical Office of Germany, 2016b.Google Scholar
Statistisches Reichsamt. Das deutsche Volkseinkommen vor und nach dem Kriege. Einzelschriften zur Statistik des Deutschen Reichs No. 24. Berlin, Germany: Reimar Hobbing, 1932.Google Scholar
Statistisches Reichsamt. Die Einkommensschichtung im Deutschen Reich. Wirtschaft und Statistik 19, 660–664. Berlin, Germany: Verlag für Sozialpolitik, Wirtschaft und Statistik, 1939.Google Scholar
Tilly, Richard. “Germany.” In Patterns of European Industrialization. The Nineteenth Century, edited by Sylla, Richard and Toniolo, Gianni, 175–96. London and New York: Routledge, 1991.Google Scholar
Statistisches Reichsamt. “The Distribution of Personal Income in Prussia, 1852 to 1875: An Exploratory Study.” Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook 51, no. 1 (2010): 175–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ullmann, H.-P. Der deutsche Steuerstaat - Geschichte der öffentlichen Finanzen. Munich, Germany: C.H. Beck, 2005.Google Scholar
Wagner, Adolph. “Die Reform der direkten Staatsbesteuerung in Preußen im Jahre 1891.“ Finanz Archiv / Public Finance Analysis 8, no. 2 (1891): 71330.Google Scholar
Wagner, Adolph. Theoretische Sozialökonomik oder Allgemeine und theoretische Volkswirtschaftslehre. Leipzig, Germany: Winter, 1907.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Bartels et al. supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Bartels et al. supplementary material(File)
File 939.2 KB