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82. Top Wealth and Its Historical Origins: An Analysis of Germany’s Largest Privately Held Fortunes in 2019
- Author:
- Daria Tisch and Emma Ischinsky
- Publication Date:
- 04-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo)
- Abstract:
- Rising wealth inequality is both a topic in recent policy discussion and in the social sciences. Despite the general interest in wealth concentration, we know only little about the largest privately held fortunes. To help fill this gap we analyze the historical origins of Germany’s 1,032 largest fortunes in 2019. In particular, we identify the share of entrenched fortunes – fortunes which date back to the beginning of the twentieth century – and ask to what extent they differ from more recently established ones. Furthermore, we examine in an exploratory way if entrenched fortunes are connected to fortunes with more recent origins through family lines. We use a journalistic rich list published by the manager magazin in 2019, which we link with both rich lists from 1912/1914 and Wikidata. We find that about eight percent of today’s fortunes can be traced back to fortunes held by the same families in 1913. Regression analyses show that entrenched fortunes rank on average higher on the rich list than the remaining ones. Descriptive network analyses indicate that some of today’s largest fortunes are intertwined through marital lines, hinting at social closure at the top. Our findings indicate that the accumulation and perpetuation of fortunes over many generations is an important feature of top wealth in Germany.
- Topic:
- Inequality, Family, Elites, Wealth, Inheritance, and Network Analysis
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Global Focus
83. Not So Clear: Revisiting the Impacts of Cap-and-Trade on Environmental Justice
- Author:
- Michael Ash and Manuel Pastor
- Publication Date:
- 06-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- A recent article by Danae Hernandez-Cortes and Kyle Meng (HCM) suggests that the cap-and-trade program in California was accompanied by improvements in the degree of environmental inequity in the state. We note that that the model used to estimate this improvement is not well-designed to capture the variation in facility adjustment to the cap-and-trade program that is at the heart of the environmental justice debate about potential shifts in co-pollutant exposure. We also show that even if that were a proper approach, the estimates offered by HCM may be problematic due to data issues, including proper identification of facilities subject to the cap, shifting results when we require that facilities have observations both before and after the cap, and robustness when we apply their method estimates beyond their selected subsample to the broader range of facilities. As such, the environmental justice implications of California’s carbon market remain an unsettled empirical question.
- Topic:
- Inequality, Trade, Pollution, and Environmental Justice
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America
84. Book Launch & Talk: Japan’s Quiet Leadership: Reshaping the Indo-Pacific
- Author:
- Mireya Solís and Gerald Curtis
- Publication Date:
- 11-2023
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Dr. Mireya Solís of the Brookings Institution will lead a talk and Q&A session on her new book Japan’s Quiet Leadership: Reshaping the Indo-Pacific scheduled for release on 1 September 2023. The book delves into Japan's transformation into a significant player in the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, highlighting its strengths in democratic resilience, social stability, and proactive diplomacy, while addressing pressing issues such as depopulation, rising inequality, and regional peace threats.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Democracy, Inequality, Leadership, Resilience, Social Stability, and Regional Politics
- Political Geography:
- Japan, Asia, and Indo-Pacific
85. Cuban Privilege: The Making of Immigrant Inequality in America
- Author:
- Susan Eckstein
- Publication Date:
- 10-2023
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- MIT Center for International Studies
- Abstract:
- About the speaker: Susan Eckstein is a Professor in the Pardee School of Global Studies and in the Sociology Department at Boston University. She has written numerous books and articles on Mexican urban poor, political-economic developments in Cuba, Cuban immigrants, immigration policy, impacts of Latin American revolutions, and edited books on Latin American social movements and social rights, and on immigrant impacts in their homelands.
- Topic:
- Poverty, Inequality, and Immigrants
- Political Geography:
- Cuba, North America, and United States of America
86. Starr Forum: Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity
- Author:
- Daron Acemoglu and Fotini Christia
- Publication Date:
- 10-2023
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- MIT Center for International Studies
- Abstract:
- A thousand years of history and contemporary evidence make one thing clear: progress depends on the choices we make about technology. New ways of organizing production and communication can either serve the narrow interests of an elite or become the foundation for widespread prosperity. Today, digital technologies and artificial intelligence threaten jobs and democracy through excessive automation, massive data collection, and intrusive surveillance. Will the next decades bring shared prosperity or a further move in the direction of two-tiered societies? Join us for this important discussion with Daron Acemoglu, the co-author of Power and Progress.
- Topic:
- Science and Technology, Communications, Inequality, Elites, Prosperity, and Production
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
87. Barriers or catalysts? Traditional institutions and social mobility in rural India
- Author:
- Vegard Iversen, Anustup Kundu, Rahul Lahoti, and Kunal Sen
- Publication Date:
- 10-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- We examine how village-level social group dominance affects the educational and occupational mobility of minority and other social groups in rural India across multiple generations. We distinguish between upper caste and own-group dominance and examine the mechanisms underpinning inequality in mobility outcomes. We find inequality in upward educational mobility to have significantly narrowed over time, with Scheduled Castes doing better in upper caste- and own-dominated villages, while Scheduled Tribes and Muslims do worse in own-dominated villages. In contrast, for occupational mobility we find no evidence of minority groups catching up with upper castes; Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are particularly disadvantaged, but Scheduled Castes, again, do comparatively better in their own-dominated villages. Exploring the mechanisms that explain the relationships between land dominance regimes and mobility, we find that a combination of agroecological and natural resource base and social cohesion of villages underpins the differences observed more than public goods provision. Our findings suggest a new pattern of inequality where historically disadvantaged groups appear less able to convert educational gains into labour market and occupational progress.
- Topic:
- Education, Inequality, Rural, Social Mobility, and Traditional Institutions
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
88. Wage inequality, firm characteristics, and firm wage premia in South Africa
- Author:
- Shakeba Foster
- Publication Date:
- 10-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- This paper investigates the role of firm characteristics in driving wage inequality and firm wage premia in the South African labour market. The Abowd, Kramarz, and Margolis (AKM) and Kline, Saggio, and Sølvsten (KSS) regression-based decomposition methods are applied to matched employer–employee administrative tax data for the period 2011–19. Additionally, the Theil index is used as a comparative tool for estimating wage inequality, given that the variance of logarithms applied in the regression-based decomposition methods has been established as an imprecise measure of inequality. The results show significantly high dispersion in wages, as estimated by both the AKM and the KSS methods as well as the Theil index, reaffirming the extent of high inequality in the country. Worker and firm characteristics account for 35 per cent and 18 per cent of wage dispersion, respectively, with a positive worker–firm covariance accounting for 11 per cent. Firm size, industry, profits, geographical location, and whether firms are locally or foreign-owned are found to be important in driving firm wage premia.
- Topic:
- Labor Issues, Inequality, Economy, and Wages
- Political Geography:
- Africa and South Africa
89. Construction productivity and global inequality
- Author:
- Saumik Paul and Kunal Sen
- Publication Date:
- 11-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Two well established stylized facts of economic development are a strong correlation between investment and income, and large differences in investment rates across countries. Construction is the largest component of investment. This paper examines the implications of heterogeneity in construction productivity on cross-country income disparity. We estimate the 10:1 spread in construction productivity among 145 countries in 2005 as a factor of 61.7-fold. Based on a general equilibrium model with input–output linkages, we find that the 10:1 spread in income per capita declines by 45 per cent when the construction productivity gap is eliminated. Sectoral characterization of the aggregate effect of a change in construction productivity shows heterogeneous sectoral contributions to income convergence. Electrical equipment, metals, and transport equipment play stronger roles in transforming the effect of a change in construction productivity to the aggregate level in China compared with other countries.
- Topic:
- Inequality, Investment, Productivity, Construction, and Income
- Political Geography:
- China and Global Focus
90. Degrees of disadvantage
- Author:
- Chinmayi Srikanth
- Publication Date:
- 11-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- This study is positioned in two strands of literature—intersectionality and social mobility. It is the first to measure (dis)advantage at the individual level as an outcome of the intersectionality of identities and parental circumstances. By linking circumstances at the parental level with (dis)advantage at the individual level, this study uses fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) in an unprecedented application, i.e. to study social mobility or generational persistence. By accounting for intersectional ascribed identities, this study is also the first to analyse social mobility for the intersectionality of caste, religion, and gender identities. Using data from the India Human Development Survey 2011–12, the study finds that, in a given generation, Hindu women can observe high outcomes only if they are born into advantageous parental circumstances. This is further tempered by their position in the social hierarchy. For men, advantageous circumstances are not a necessary precondition for upward mobility. By building epistemological arguments, this paper also makes a contribution by being the first to contend that fsQCA is the ideal method to study overdeterministic social science phenomena.
- Topic:
- Development, Women, Inequality, Identity, and Social Mobility
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India