Inequality Trends for Germany in the Last Two Decades: A Tale of Two Countries

In this paper we ...rst document inequality trends in wages, hoursworked, earnings, consumption, and wealth for Germany from thelast twenty years. We generally ...nd that inequality was relativelystable inWest Germany until the German uni...cation (which happenedpolitically in 1990 and in our data in 1991), and then trended upwardsfor wages and market incomes, especially after about 1998. Disposableincome and consumption, on the other hand, display only a modestincrease in inequality over the same period. These trends occuredagainst the backdrop of lower trend growth of earnings, incomes andconsumption in the 1990s relative to the 1980s. In the second part ofthe paper we further analyze the di¤erences between East and WestGermans in terms of the evolution of levels and inequality of wages,income, and consumption.     «

In this paper we ...rst document inequality trends in wages, hoursworked, earnings, consumption, and wealth for Germany from thelast twenty years. We generally ...nd that inequality was relativelystable inWest Germany until the German uni...cation (which happenedpolitically in 1990 and in our data in 1991), and then trended upwardsfor wages and market incomes, especially after about 1998. Disposableincome and consumption, on the other hand, display only a modestincrease in inequality over the sa...     »