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Idiosyncrasies of the oligarchic elite: On the political economy of wealth concentration in Austria

Author

Listed:
  • Stephan Puehringer

    (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria)

  • Matthias Aistleitner

    (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria)

  • Lukas Cserjan

    (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria)

  • Sophie Hieselmayr

    (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria)

  • Jan Weber

Abstract

The increasing concentration of income and wealth on the national and international level is a topic that has received increased attention both in social science research as well as public policy debates. While data availability is a well-known and often-lamented problem in wealth studies, especially the group of HNW-households remains largely unexplored. In this study, we aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of the impact of HNW-households and their networks on current wealth distributions. Based on an extensive data set of company ownerships of a sample of the 62 wealthiest Austrian HNW-households, we apply a social network analysis of two-mode networks (institutions and persons) to highlight networks of corporate ownership and (indirect) control. An overall finding is that numerous HNW-networks involve a multitude of legal entities, creating complex and opaque control structures that complicates the tracing of economic ownership. Besides this, our findings show several idiosyncrasies of the super-rich.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephan Puehringer & Matthias Aistleitner & Lukas Cserjan & Sophie Hieselmayr & Jan Weber, 2025. "Idiosyncrasies of the oligarchic elite: On the political economy of wealth concentration in Austria," ICAE Working Papers 157, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    • Handle: RePEc:ico:wpaper:157
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