Sowohl die Einkommensarmut als auch der Einkommensreichtum haben in Deutschland in den letzten Jahren deutlich zugenommen, zu Lasten der mittleren Einkommensgruppen. Reichtum sollte auch die Freiheit von materiellen Sorgen bedeuten. Trotz der Polarisierung der Einkommensverteilung hat der Anteil...

The decline of the middle class has been investigated as a principal aspect of social polarization (Wolfson 1994, 1997). Wang and Tsui 2000 have characterized a class of polarization measures by postulates on normalization, increasing spread and increasing bipolarity. The present paper...

In this paper we compare wealth polarization within and across ten African countries. Using DHS data and applying the recently developed polarization measure by Duclos et al (2004) we find that most countries included in this study experienced a sharp decrease of polarization but at different...

This study seeks to add to the research on inequality in least developed countries, namely in Mozambique, by measuring and mapping indicators of horizontal wealth inequality along geographic regions and ethnolinguistic identities. Using census data for 1997, 2007, and 2017, we identify possible...

While most studies on wealth inequality focus on the inequality between households, this paper examines the distribution of wealth within couples. For this purpose, we make use of unique individual level micro data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). In married and cohabiting...

While most studies on wealth inequality focus on the inequality between households, this paper examines the distribution of wealth within couples. For this purpose, we make use of unique individual level micro data from the German socio-economic panel study. In married and cohabiting couples...

Using a micro-level approach to poverty traps, this paper explores welfare dynamics among households in post-war rural Mozambique. Conceptually, the paper builds on an asset-based approach to poverty and tests empirically, with household panel data, for the existence of a poverty trap. Findings...

Income and wealth are important determinants of individual economic well-being because they are a fundamental resource for consumption. Due to increasing inequality the distribution of income and wealth has moved more and more into the focus of scientific and political attention. The aim of this...

Using a micro-level approach to poverty traps, this paper explores welfare dynamics among households in post-war rural Mozambique. Conceptually, the paper builds on an asset-based approach to poverty and tests empirically, with household panel data, for the existence of a poverty trap. Findings...

In this paper, we define a new class of richness measures. In contrast to the often used head-count, these new measures are sensitive to changes in rich person's income and therefore allow for a more sophisticated analysis of richness. We demonstrate the application of these new measures to...