Top Income: A Distribution Analysis for Liberal Professions, Entrepreneurs and Employees - A Microanalysis based on the German Income Tax Statistics

FFB Discussion Paper No. 40

38 Pages Posted: 21 May 2009

See all articles by Joachim Merz

Joachim Merz

Research Institute on Professions; Research Institute on Professions; Leuphana University of Lueneburg; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Markus Zwick

Federal Statistical Office of Germany - Research Data Center

Date Written: May 1, 2003

Abstract

The distribution of societal resources is of high societal, economic and social policy importance. What is missing are reliable data above all about high income. This study will contribute to a well-founded analysis of high income for self employed – as (liberal) professions and entrepreneurs – and as employees, central groups of the labour market and the society at all. Before the background of requirements to a database and given official and non-official data sources we characterize our microdata base, the wage and income tax statistic 1995, a population statistic , which in particular is well-suited for the analysis ogf high income. We describe the used economic income concept and our 10% sample with about 3 Million anonymized tax records. For the first time we then present distributional and re-distributional results based on all income areas and for alternative high income thresholds – millionares and 200% of the mean – for professions, entrepreneurs and employees.

Note: Downloadable document is in German.

Keywords: Wealth, high income, incoime distribution of (liberal) professions, entrepreneurs and employees, decomposition of inequality, re-distribution, German Wage and Income Tax Statistic, tax microdata

JEL Classification: E24, J30, J71

Suggested Citation

Merz, Joachim and Merz, Joachim and Zwick, Markus, Top Income: A Distribution Analysis for Liberal Professions, Entrepreneurs and Employees - A Microanalysis based on the German Income Tax Statistics (May 1, 2003). FFB Discussion Paper No. 40, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1407462 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1407462

Joachim Merz (Contact Author)

Research Institute on Professions ( email )

Lüneburg
Germany

Research Institute on Professions ( email )

Lüneburg
Germany

Leuphana University of Lueneburg

Scharnhorststrasse 1
Lüneburg, 21314
Germany

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Markus Zwick

Federal Statistical Office of Germany - Research Data Center ( email )

Gustav - Stresemann - Ring 11
Wiesbaden, 65189
Germany

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