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Persistently High Wealth Inequality in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Markus M. Grabka
  • Christian Westermeier

Abstract

According to current analyses based on the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), the total net assets of German households in 2012 amounted to 6.3 trillion euros. Almost 28 percent of the adult population had no or even negative net wealth. On average, individual net assets in 2012 totaled over 83,000 euros, slightly more than ten years previously. The degree of wealth inequality also remained virtually unchanged. With a Gini coefficient of 0.78, Germany has a high degree of wealth inequality compared to other countries, and there is still a wide gap between western and eastern Germany almost 25 years after unification. In 2012, the average net wealth of eastern Germans was less than half that of western Germans.

Suggested Citation

  • Markus M. Grabka & Christian Westermeier, 2014. "Persistently High Wealth Inequality in Germany," DIW Economic Bulletin, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 4(6), pages 3-15.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwdeb:2014-6-1
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    File URL: https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.466668.de/diw_econ_bull_2014-06-1.pdf
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Petar Peshev & Statty Stattev & Kristina Stefanova & Meglena Lazarova, 2019. "Financial Wealth Inequality Drivers in a Small EU Member Country: An Example from Bulgaria during the Period 2005-2017," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 2, pages 41-72.
    2. Tom Krebs & Martin Scheffel, 2016. "Labor Market Institutions and the Cost of Recessions," CESifo Working Paper Series 6262, CESifo.
    3. Lersch, Philipp M. & Grabka, Markus M. & Rüß, Kilian & Schröder, Carsten, 2021. "Wealth of children from single-parent families: Low levels and high inequality in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 31(5), pages 565-579.
    4. Timm Bönke & Markus M. Grabka & Carsten Schröder & Edward N. Wolff & Lennard Zyska, 2019. "The Joint Distribution of Net Worth and Pension Wealth in Germany," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 834-871, December.
    5. Heer, Burkhard & Trede, Mark, 2023. "Age-specific entrepreneurship and PAYG: Public pensions in Germany," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    6. Waitkus, Nora & Minkus, Lara, 2021. "Investigating the gender wealth gap across occupational classes," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108206, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Ihle, Dorothee & Siebert-Meyerhoff, Andrea, 2017. "The older, the richer? A decomposition of wealth inequality by age subgroups," CAWM Discussion Papers 97, University of Münster, Münster Center for Economic Policy (MEP).
    8. Nicole Kapelle, 2021. "Why Time Cannot Heal All Wounds: Personal Wealth Trajectories of Divorced and Married Men and Women," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1134, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    9. Grabka, Markus M., 2015. "Income and Wealth Inequality after the Financial Crisis: The Case of Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 42(2), pages 371-390.
    10. Max Greenberg & H. Oliver Gao, 2024. "Twenty-five years of random asset exchange modeling," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 97(6), pages 1-27, June.
    11. Michele Battisti & Gabriel Felbermayr & Sybille Lehwald, 2016. "Inequality in Germany: Myths, Facts, and Policy Implications," ifo Working Paper Series 217, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    12. Kostov, Lyuboslav, 2023. "Modern inequalities: a review of the literature," SEER Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 26(1), pages 81-94.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wealth inequality; wealth portfolio; SOEP;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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