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Income-Dependent Equivalence Scales and Choice Theory: Implications for Poverty Measurement

The study of poverty is at the heart of economics, and the goal of overcoming it drives the efforts of policy-makers worldwide. Meeting such goals requires confidence (a) in the tools we have to measure poverty, and (b) in our understanding of the determinants of poverty. Here, we focus on the role of household composition in the measurement and analysis of poverty. After presenting some core concepts, ...

De-Routinization of Jobs and the Distribution Of Earnings: A Cross-Country Comparison

The Routine-Biased Technological Change hypothesis (RBTC) by Autor et al. (2023) suggests that automation processes have substituted workers operating middle-skilled routine tasks. As a result, the relative demand for complementary workers operating non-routine tasks has increased. These changes in the labor force composition imply job polarization, characterized by a growing proportion of both high- ...

Born in the Land of Milk and Honey: Hometown Growth and Individual Wealth Accumulation

How does economic growth affect the distribution of wealth? Combining wealth records from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and local GDP growth across 401 German counties, this paper documents a sizable Hometown-Growth-Wealth Nexus. Using a standard OLG model to guide our estimation strategy, we nd that, because of hometown growth, a person born in flourishing Munich will have accumulated two to three ...

The Price Elasticity of Natural Gas Demand of Small Consumers in Germany during the Energy Crisis 2022

Understanding how consumers respond to turbulent market conditions is crucial for planning security of natural gas supply. This paper estimates the price elasticity of demand of small consumers in Germany in the period with both high price fluctuations and a fear of natural gas shortage in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Using granular data between 2018 and 2023, we estimate an Auto ...

The Long-Term Implications of Destruction During the Second World War on Private Wealth in Germany

By the end of the Second World War, an estimated 20% of the West German housing stock had been destroyed. Building on a theoretical life-cycle model, this paper examines the persistent consequences of the war for individual wealth across generations. As our empirical basis, we link a unique historical dataset on the levels of wartime destruction in 1739 West German cities with micro data on individual ...

Wealth Creators or Inheritors? Unpacking the Gender Wealth Gap from Bottom To Top and Young to Old

There is growing interest in understanding how gender influences the accumulation of wealth. While prior studies focused on labor-related determinants, our research focuses on inheritances and gifts. Using unique survey data that oversamples the top 1% of wealth holders in Germany, we show that the gender wealth gap is small for individuals up to age 40, then widens, and declines for those past retirement ...

Sonderauswertungen des Sozioökonomischen Panels (SOEP) 2020 und 2021 zu Löhnen und Arbeitszeiten in der Pandemie: Abschlussbericht

Age Trajectories of Perceptual Speed and Loneliness: Separating Between-Person and Within-Person Associations

Objectives: We aimed at examining between-person and within-person associations across age trajectories of perceptual speed and loneliness in old age. Method: We applied multilevel models to 4 waves of data collected over 6 years from 1,491 participants of the Berlin Aging Study II (60–88 years at baseline, 50% women) to disentangle between-person and within-person associations across age trajectories ...

'Climate Neutral' is a Lie — Abandon It as a Goal: Correspondence

DIW-Konjunkturbarometer November: Deutsche Wirtschaft verharrt im Tief

Das Konjunkturbarometer des Deutschen Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW Berlin) ist im November um knapp zwei auf nun 83,7 Punkte gesunken. Damit entfernt sich der Barometerwert wieder etwas weiter von der neutralen 100-Punkte-Marke, die ein durchschnittliches Wachstum der deutschen Wirtschaft anzeigt. Ein Ende der Stagnation rückt in immer weitere Ferne. Nachdem die Wirtschaftsleistung im vergangenen ...