Direkt zum Inhalt

Regional Income Stratification in Unified Germany Using a Gini Decomposition Approach

Referierte Aufsätze Web of Science

Joachim R. Frick, Jan Goebel

In: Regional Studies 42 (2008), 4, S. 555-577

Abstract

Using representative micro data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), this paper delivers new insights into the development of income inequality and regional stratification in Germany after unification. This paper applies a new method for detecting social stratification by a decomposition of the Gini index that yields the obligatory between- and within-group components as well as an 'overlapping' index for the different sub-populations. It is found that East Germany is still a stratum on its own when using post-government income, but since 2001 no longer is when using pre-government income. These results remain stable when using alternatively defined regional classifications. However, there are also indications of some regional variation within West Germany.

Jan Goebel

Board of Directors SOEP and Division Head Data Operation and Research Data Center in the German Socio-Economic Panel study Department

keyboard_arrow_up