Workshop

The 2-day workshop, supported by the German Research Foundation, will bring together researchers to discuss and exchange ideas on critical issues surrounding wealth and income inequalities. Featured presentations will highlight work on a wide range of topics, including savings and wealth accumulation, measuring income inequality and poverty, long-run dynamics of income and wealth distributions, impact of government policies, as well as fairness and redistribution. There will be two keynote lectures, one by Martin Blomhoff Holm (University of Oslo) on “Saving Behavior Across the Wealth Distribution: The Importance of Capital Gains” and another one by Bertrand Garbinti (CREST-ENSAE) on “Tax Design, Information, and Elasticities: Evidence From the French Wealth Tax".

The workshop is part of the research project Wealth-Holders at the Top (WATT) which is an interdisciplinary research network seeking to answer the following key questions: How much do Germany’s top wealth holders own in assets? What are their socio-demographic and psychological characteristics? How do the rich get rich in the first place? And how involved are they in civic and political activities? The aim is to understand the extent, causes, and consequences of economic inequalities. The insights gained through WATT will provide a sound empirical basis for policy decisions.