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Mobility of top incomes in Germany

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  • Jenderny, Katharina

Abstract

Mobility of top incomes matters for both the openness of the income elite and the share of total income that this group receives. It is thus an important complement information to the growing snapshot literature on top income concentration. I use microlevel panel data of German income tax files that is highly representative for top income households. Top income mobility is assessed in four dimensions: (i) its stability over time, (ii) the degree of mobility between top income fractiles, (iii) the degree of mobility between equally sized groups and mobility in ranks, both of which do not depend on fractile sizes, and (iv) mobility's impact on distributional results. Mobility in terms of annual fractile changes is high between the richest top income fractiles, which is primarily due to tiny fractile sizes. When the fractiles' sizes are controlled for, top income recipients' mobility is lower than that of lower income tax units.

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  • Jenderny, Katharina, 2013. "Mobility of top incomes in Germany," Discussion Papers 2013/7, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:20137
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    Cited by:

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    4. Corneo Giacomo, 2015. "Kreuz und quer durch die deutsche Einkommensverteilung," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 16(2), pages 109-126, June.
    5. Muthitacharoen, Athiphat & Burong, Trongwut, 2023. "Climbing the economic ladder: Earnings inequality and intragenerational mobility among Thai formal workers," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    6. Moritz Drechsel‐Grau & Andreas Peichl & Kai D. Schmid & Johannes F. Schmieder & Hannes Walz & Stefanie Wolter, 2022. "Inequality and income dynamics in Germany," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(4), pages 1593-1635, November.
    7. Isabel Z. Martínez, 2021. "Evidence from Unique Swiss Tax Data on the Composition and Joint Distribution of Income and Wealth," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth, pages 105-142, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Fairfield, Tasha & Jorratt, Michel, 2014. "Top income shares, business profits, and effective tax rates in contemporary Chile," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 56016, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Terhi Ravaska, 2018. "Top incomes and income dynamics from a gender perspective: Evidence from Finland 1995–2012," Working Papers 321, Työn ja talouden tutkimus LABORE, The Labour Institute for Economic Research LABORE.
    10. Liliana Cano, 2015. "Income Mobility in Ecuador: New Evidence from Individual Income Tax Returns," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-040, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Terhi Ravaska, 2018. "Top incomes and income dynamics from a gender perspective: Evidence from Finland 1995-2012," Working Papers 469, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    12. Liliana Cano, 2015. "Income mobility in Ecuador: New evidence from individual income tax returns," WIDER Working Paper Series 040, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. David (David Patrick) Madden, 2019. "BMI Mobility and Obesity Transitions Among Children in Ireland," Working Papers 201922, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    14. Zeng, Ting & Zhu, Shenghao, 2022. "The mobility of top earnings, income, and wealth in China: Facts from the 2011–2017 China household finance survey," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    15. Ravaska Terhi, 2018. "Top incomes and income dynamics from a gender perspective : Evidence from Finland 1995-2012," Working Papers 1822, Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business, Economics.
    16. Nicolás Oliva & Xavier Jara & Pia Rattenhuber, 2021. "What explains the gender gap in top incomes in developing countries?: Evidence from Ecuador," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-109, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Frank T Denton & Byron G Spencer & Terry A Yip, 2019. "Age-Income Dynamics Over The Life Course: Cohort Transition Patterns In Relative Income Based On Canadian Tax Returns," Department of Economics Working Papers 2019-02, McMaster University.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    income distribution; inequality; top incomes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

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