Top

Published in:

2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

Inequality in Germany and the US: An Introductory Note

Author : Bettina Bökemeier

Published in: Inequality and Finance in Macrodynamics

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

This introduction addresses various aspects of income and wealth inequality and their developments in Germany and the United States. In both countries the distribution of income and wealth has become more unequal during the past decades. We observe some changes in the figures especially for Germany indicating a more unequal situation at present. This holds for both, the income and the wealth inequality measures. Even though redistribution instruments reduce the Gini coefficient for the disposable income compared to the market outcome, there still is an almost steady increasing trend since the middle of the 1980s. Regarding wealth inequality, the ratio of mean to median net wealth reveals values above the OECD average for Germany and the United States. Both, income and wealth inequality are, however, more pronounced in the US.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

next chapter Assessing Public Spending Efficiency in 20 OECD Countries

There is, however, a close pattern among wealth and income.

There are many ways for calculation and sources for Gini coefficients, see for instance World Bank (2014). Here, the data has been taken from OECD (2016a) for comparison.

About 60% for the 30 years from 1976 to 2007, cf. Atkinson et al. (2011, p8f.).

Piketty and Zucman (2014, p.17) especially look at France, Britain an Sweden, but argue that the pattern is rather typical for Europe.

All wealth data has been taken from OECD (2016b). All values refer to the most recent available data (2010) and current prices of national currency (GER= €, USA= US$).

Atkinson, A. B., Piketty, T., & Saez, E. (2011). Top incomes in the long run of history. Journal of Economic Literature, 49(1), 3–71.CrossRef

Behringer, J., Theobald, T., & van Treeck, T. (2016). Ungleichheit und makroökonomische Instabilität: Eine Bestandsaufnahme (pp. 1–36). Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, available online: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/wiso/12690.pdf, last access: October 5, 2016.

Fratzscher, M. (2016). Verteilungskampf: Warum Deutschland immer ungleicher wird. München: Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH Co KG.CrossRef

Kuznets, S. (1953). Shares of upper income groups in income and savings (Vol. 55). New York: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Kuznets, S. (1955). Economic growth and income inequality. The American Economic Review, 45(1), 1–28.

Murtin, F., & d’Ercole, M. (2015). Household wealth inequality across OECD countries: New OECD evidence. OECD Statistics Brief No. 21, June 2015.

OECD (2011a). Divided we stand: Why inequality keeps rising. Paris: OECD Publishing.

OECD (2011b). Inequality: Why the struggle matters. OECD Observer No. 287 Q4.

OECD (2016a). OECD.stat, Social protection and well-being. Income distribution and poverty. http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=66670#, last access: September 13, 2016.

OECD (2016b). OECD.stat, Social protection and well-being. Wealth distribution. https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=WEALTH, last access: September 8, 2016.

Ostry, J. D., Berg, A., & Tsangarides, C. G. (2014). Redistribution, inequality, and growth (pp. 1–36). IMF Staff Dicussion Note SDB/14/02, available online: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2014/sdn1402.pdf, last access: October 11, 2016.

Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the 21st Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Piketty, T., & Saez, E. (2003). Income inequality in the United States, 1913–1998. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1), 1–39.CrossRef

Piketty, T., & Zucman, G. (2014). Wealth and inheritance in the long run. CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP10072.

Stiglitz, J. E. (2012). The price of inequality: How today’s divided society endangers our future. New York: WW Norton & Company.

Wolff, E. N., & Zacharias, A. (2009). Household wealth and the measurement of economic well-being in the United States. The Journal of Economic Inequality, 7(2), 83–115.

World Bank. (2014). All the Ginis, 1950–2012 (updated in autumn 2014) by Branko L. Milanovic. http://go.worldbank.org/9VCQW66LA0. Last access: 5 Sept 2016

Title: Inequality in Germany and the US: An Introductory Note
Author: Bettina Bökemeier
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Inequality and Finance in Macrodynamics
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-54689-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-54690-2

Copyright Year: 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54690-2_1