Inequality of the Distribution of Personal Wealth in Germany, 1973–98

Research on wealth inequality usually focuses on real and financial assets, while pension wealth – the present value of future pension entitlements from public and company pension schemes – receives little attention. This is astonishing, given that pension plans play an important role for material security and well‐being for an overwhelming part of the population and, thus, should be accounted for in peoples’ wealth portfolios. Using novel data from the Socio Economic Panel (SOEP), we show the incidence, relevance, and distribution of individual pension wealth, net worth, and augmented wealth (the sum of the two) in Germany. Further, we investigate age‐wealth‐profiles and differences between East and West Germany.

The research on wealth inequality has generally focused on real and financial assets, while giving little attention to pension wealth: the present value of future pension entitlements from public and company pension schemes. This is surprising given the important role pension plans play in guaranteeing material security and well‐being for a majority of the population, and suggests that they should be accounted for in peoples’ wealth portfolios. Using novel data from the Socio‐Economic Panel (SOEP), we study the incidence, relevance, and distribution of individual pension wealth, net worth, and augmented wealth (the sum of the two) in Germany. Further, we investigate age‐wealth profiles and differences between East and West Germany.

BackgroundSocial inequalities in health exist globally and are a major public health concern. This study focus on a systematic investigation into the associations between health indicators, living conditions and parental educational level as indicator of the social status of 6-year-old children living in West and East Germany in the decade after re-unification. Explanations of observed associations between parental education and health indicators were examined.MethodsAll boys and girls entering elementary school and living in predefined areas of East and West Germany were invited to participate in a series of cross-sectional surveys conducted between 1991 and 2000. Data of 28,888 German children with information on parental education were included in the analysis. Information about educational level of the parents, individual living conditions, symptoms and diagnoses of infectious diseases and allergies were taken from questionnaire. At the day of investigation, atopic eczema was diagnosed by dermatologists, blood was taken for the determination of allergen-specific immuno-globulin E, height and weight was measured and lung function tests were done in subgroups. Regression analysis was applied to investigate the associations between the health indicators and parental educational level as well as the child's living conditions. Gender, urban/rural residency and year of survey were used to control for confounding.ResultsAverage response was 83% in East Germany and 71% in West Germany. Strong associations between health indicators and parental education were observed. Higher educated parents reported more diagnoses and symptoms than less educated. Children of higher educated parents were also more often sensitized against grass pollen or house dust mites, but had higher birth weights, lower airway resistance and were less overweight at the age of six. Furthermore, most of the health indicators were significantly associated with one or more living conditions such as living as a single child, unfavourable indoor air, damp housing condition, maternal smoking during pregnancy or living near a busy road. The total lung capacity and the prevalence of an atopic eczema at the day of investigation were the only health indicators those did not show associations with any of the predictor variables.ConclusionDespite large differences in living conditions and evidence that some poor health outcomes were directly associated with poor living conditions, only few indicators demonstrated poorer health in social disadvantaged children. These were in both parts of Germany increased levels of overweight, higher airway resistance and, in East Germany only, reduced height in children with lower educated parents compared to those of higher education. In both East and West Germany, higher prevalence of airway symptoms was associated with a damp housing condition, and lower birth weight, reduced height and increased airway resistance at the age of six were associated with maternal smoking during pregnancy. The latter explained to a large extent the difference in birth weight and airway resistance between the educational groups.

Within an environmental health study, dermatologic examination of 1273 pre-school-age children (5-7 years old) was carried out in selected areas of East (n = 287) and West (n = 987) Germany in spring 1991. On the basis of comparable genetic background, the influence of a different exposure to air pollutants on the manifestation of atopic diseases was investigated. Halle an der Saale (East Germany) and Duisburg (North/South) as well as Essen (West Germany) were chosen as polluted study areas, whereas the countryside town of Borken (West Germany) served as a control region. Outdoor pollution with particles and SO2 was significantly higher in Halle an der Saale. Of the total study group, 12.9% suffered from atopic eczema at the time of examination. The prevalence was highest in East Germany (17.5%; adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.39, confidence intervals [GI] 0.77-2.52, compared to Borken). The reported frequencies of hay fever and asthma in the total study population were 2% and 1.3%, respectively, without significant differences between study sites. Some 34.7% of the children showed at least one positive skin prick test reaction; significantly (P < 0.001) higher sensitization rates were obtained in western regions (Essen, Duisburg-South) than in the control region (Borken) and East Germany. Multivariate analysis of the prevalence of atopic eczema showed associations with parental predisposition (OR 1.52, CI 1.03-2.25), sex (for boys, OR 0.63, CI 0.43-0.92), location (Duisburg-South vs Borken OR 0.52, CI 0.30-0.96), month of investigation (May vs April, and March vs February OR 0.55, CI 0.37-0.81), contact with rabbits (for girls, OR 2.90, CI 1.36-6.19), animal fur in bedrooms (2.17, 1.01-4.67), indoor use of gas without hood (1.68, 1.11-2.56), and distance of homes from a busy road (< 50 m 1.71, 1.07-2.73). Nonsignificant associations were observed for history of helminthic infections (OR 1.61, CI 0.98-2.64) and high parental education level (OR 1.83, CI 0.83-4.02). In East and West Germany, atopic eczema seems to follow a course different from that of respiratory allergic diseases and specific sensitization, a fact which underlines the need for a differentiated analysis.

Until now mortality trends of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) in Germany have been studied only in West Germany. We were interested in comparing mortality trends of melanoma and NMSC in West and East Germany before and after the post-communist transition. By analyses of health care utilization data in West and East Germany, we explored potential reasons for mortality differences between these regions. We analyzed mortality data of skin melanoma and NMSC of West and East Germany (1980-2005). We calculated sex-specific age-standardized mortality rates using the World Standard Population. We calculated age-specific mortality rates (20-39, 40-59, 60-79, 80+ years). Age-standardized skin melanoma mortality rates tended to be lower in East Germany than West Germany before reunification. After reunification rates became very similar. Age-standardized mortality rates of NMSC were continuously higher in East than West Germany. The mortality rate differences among East and West Germans in 1996-2005 are mainly due to 2.34- and 2.24-fold higher mortality rates among men and women aged 80 years, respectively, who live in East Germany. Even 15 years after reunification, mortality of NMSC is still higher in East than West Germany, although incidence rates of squamous cell cancers of the skin are not higher in East Germany. Differences in the participation in early cancer detection and health care utilization in West and East Germany do not sufficiently explain our findings.

Infections may play a role in the etiology of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), with Bordetella pertussis being a potential agent. The objective was to analyze the association of SIDS and infant pertussis hospitalization rates over time, comparing a previously unvaccinated population (West Germany) versus a predominantly vaccinated population (East Germany). We calculated SIDS rates per 1000 live births per state. Live births and SIDS were available from 1980 onwards for the West German states and from 1991 onwards for the East German states. We applied interrupted time series (ITS) analyses to investigate the role of two public health interventions in 1991 (West Germany) and in 2000 (West and East Germany), respectively. Infant pertussis hospitalizations were available for five West German and three East German states between 1994 and 2019. We used multilayer and multivariate correlation analyses to determine the correlation between SIDS and pertussis hospitalization rates, including Pearson correlation test and vector autoregressive (VAR) analysis. In West Germany, the average annual SIDS rate (per 1000 live births) increased from 1.08 in 1980 to 1.68 in 1991, before declining to 1.18 in 1992 and subsequently to 0.10 in 2020. In East Germany, the average annual SIDS rate (per 1000 live births) decreased from 0.79 in 1991 to 0.12 in 2020. The results of the ITS model indicated a significant change in both level and slope at the 1991 interventions (West Germany) and in slope at the 2000 interventions (West and East Germany). The correlation coefficients between SIDS and infant pertussis hospitalization rates were 0.69 (95% CI [confidence interval]0.41, 0.85; p < 0.001) in West Germany, and 0.41 (95% CI 0.03, 0.69; p = 0.037) in East Germany. The correlation decreased during later periods (2000-2019, 2010-2019), particularly in East Germany. The results of the VAR analysis corroborated the findings of the main analyses. SIDS and infant pertussis hospitalization rates were correlated in both West and East Germany. Further studies - including improved diagnostic assessment of pertussis - seem warranted. Not applicable.

BackgroundInequalities in health and wealth distributions are becoming pressing societal problems in many countries. How these inequalities are perceived and to what degree perceptions are aligned with actual distributions, is important for trust in public health services, social and economic policies, and policymakers. This study aims to assess perceived and desired levels of inequality in health and wealth in Germany and the UK.MethodsThe online-survey was filled out by 769 volunteers (322 from Germany, 447 from the UK), recruited from an existing commercial panel (Prolific Academic) or via Facebook advertisements in 2019. Perceived and ideal national health and wealth distributions were assessed and compared to actual health indicators (i.e. days absent from work, number of visits to general practitioners (GPs) and self-rated health), and actual wealth distributions with t-tests.ResultsA pronounced gap emerged between the estimated, ideal and actual inequality. Both samples strikingly underestimated the proportion of (very) good health in the national distribution by a factor of ~ 2.3 (participants estimated that 34% of the German and 36% of the UK population respectively are very healthy or healthy, while the actual proportion in the population was 75% in Germany and 84% in the UK, P < 0.001 for all). Moreover, actual health distributions were much closer to the desired than the perceived health distributions (78% of German and 72% of UK participants ideally being very healthy or healthy). A reversed pattern of results emerged for wealth in both samples, with wealth inequality being strikingly worse than desired and inequality being underestimated by a factor ~ 1.7 (P < 0.001 for all). Results were consistent across demographic groups.ConclusionsRespondents in both Germany and the UK have profoundly negative misperceptions regarding the distribution of health, which contrasts with starkly positive misperceptions regarding the distribution of wealth, indicating that the public is healthier but poorer than they think. More importantly, from a public health perspective, a high level of consensus emerged, with both healthy and wealthy participants misperceiving health and wealth distributions.

BackgroundAlthough age-adjusted mortality rates of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are declining in many industrialised countries, the burden of these diseases may increase due...

PurposeAn important Islamic imperative is prevention of concentration of wealth among a few so that wealth circulates widely to enhance shared prosperity. In contemporary economic discourse, inequality and concentration of wealth have emerged as among key causes of instability and crisis. Unfortunately, although Islamic finance has emerged as a Shari’ah-compliant industry, it does not seem to be connected with the Islamic concern about inequality and concentration of wealth. This paper aims to explore the issues of inequality and concentration of wealth in the context of Islamic finance.Design/methodology/approachThis paper addresses a number of queries: Are Islamic banks, as the dominant component of the industry, helping to improve inequality and concentration of wealth and thus offer a better framework to deal with instability and crisis? Is the ownership structure of Islamic banks conducive to meeting the Islamic imperative regarding inequality and concentration of wealth? Using secondary data, this research illuminates the pertinent issues in light of the experience of Bahrain as one of the hubs of Islamic banking and finance.FindingsThe paper finds that the ownership pattern of Islamic banks in Bahrain lends credence to the entrenched, not-so-unexpected concentration of wealth.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is based on data of one country. Further studies on other countries will help illuminate the relevant patterns and issues.Practical implicationsInequality and concentration of wealth are among central economic issues in contemporary economic discourse. Because of the significant impact of such inequality and concentration, societies need to be more aware of these impacts and devise ways to address it.Social implicationsInequality and concentration of wealth have fundamental social implications, as the issues of poverty, deprivation, exploitation, etc. are inseparable from concentration of wealth (accompanied by concentration of power), and widening wealth gap can cause or induce major socio-political upheaval.Originality/valueAlthough inequality and concentration of wealth are robust fields of inquiry, this might be the first work addressing the issue of concentration of wealth in the context of Islamic finance in general and Islamic banking in particular.

IntroductionThe study aimed to investigate the association between the start age of non-parental Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and psycho-social problems in adolescence. The similarities and differences between West and East Germany were also investigated in a natural experiment.MethodsOur sample consisted of 1022 children (621 from West Germany, 401 from East Germany) aged 3–4 years at wave 2003–2006 that were followed up to wave 2014–2017 as adolescents (mean ± SD age = 14.4 ± 0.03 years) in the KiGGS study. The psycho-social problems were measured by the parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at wave 2014–2017. Linear regression was used to explore the relationship between ECEC-start-age and psycho-social problems in adolescence in Germany, and stratified by West and East Germany.ResultsThose who started ECEC between 2 and 3 years old (reference) had the lowest scores of psycho-social problems in the whole Germany and in West Germany in adolescence. In comparison, those who started ECEC older than 3 years old had higher scores of internalizing psycho-social problems in both West Germany (with statistically significant results) and East Germany (with a relatively larger effect size but insignificant results). Those who started ECEC younger than 1 year old had statistically significant higher scores for externalizing psycho-social problems in West Germany, even though less children started ECEC younger than 1 in West Germany compared to East Germany. This significant association was not found in East Germany. Those who started ECEC between 1 and 2 years old tended to have higher scores of externalizing psycho-social problems in both West and East Germany.ConclusionThe results suggest that if children start ECEC older than 3 years or younger than 2 years, more attention needs to be given to internalizing or externalizing psycho-social problems respectively. The regional differences for children younger than 1 year old may suggest a selection effect in West Germany where only fewer parents bring babies to ECEC, while the regional similarities for children over 3 years old indicate the importance of providing access to ECEC for children over 3 years old.

BackgroundHealth and social conditions vary between West and East Germany.MethodsWe analyzed annual mortality data of all recorded deaths caused by lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer in Germany as they are published by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) encompassing the period 1980–2014 for former West Germany (WG) and 1990–2014 for former East Germany (EG). To compare East and West Germany we computed the ratio of the mortality rates in both parts (mortality rate ratio, MRR, <1 indicates a lower mortality in EG). Forecasting methods of time series analyses were applied (model selection based on the Box/Jenkins approach) to predict 5-year trends until 2019.ResultsLung cancer: In women mortality rose in both regions (WG: +2.8%, 1991–2014, EG: +2.2%, 1990–2014). In men mortality in WG declined between −2.1% and −1.2%, and by −2.7% (1993–2009) in EG which was followed by a plateau. Colorectal cancer: A decline was found in both WG (−3.1%, 1993–2014) and EG women (−3.8%, 1993–2008 and −2.0%, 2008–2014). A decline in EG men since 1992 (−0.9%, 1992–1997 and −2.3%, 1997–2014) mirrors the development in WG (−2.6%, 1995–2014). Breast cancer: Constant mortality decline in WG after 1996. In EG a decline (−2.4%, 1992–2007) was followed by a plateau with an MRR <1 (1990–2014). Prostate cancer: In WG a decline (−3.4%) came to a hold after 2007, while there was a constant decline of 1.5% in EG. The forecast indicated that mortality of colorectal/lung cancer in men and breast cancer reaches a plateau in future years.ConclusionCourses of mortality were similar between East and West, while existing differences are likely to remain in the near future.

Objective of this re-analysis of datasets from former East and West Germany was to examine the influence of maternal education on intrauterine growth in two different political and social systems. Information on socio-demographic or lifestyle factors and pregnancy outcome was available for 3374 liveborn singletons from West Germany (1987/88) and 3070 from East Germany (1990/91). Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate the association between maternal education and the risk of delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) newborn below the 10th percentile of birthweight. Women with the lowest education had a significantly elevated risk of SGA newborns compared to women with the highest education in West (odds ratio [OR] = 2.58, 95% CI : 1.17-5.67) and East Germany (OR = 2.77, 95% CI : 1.54- 5.00). The distribution of factors known to influence intrauterine growth varied with education in both states. After adjusting for these factors, women with the lowest educational level still had a higher risk of SGA birth: OR (West) = 2.02, 95% CI : 0.87-4.72; OR (East) = 1.95, 95% CI : 1.02-3.74. Our findings support the assumption that in former socialist countries health inequalities as a result of social inequalities existed.

Trends in gender differences in health at working ages among West and East Germans

A substantial amount of literature dealing with conceptualisations of the nation has neglected the importance that gender and the politics of reproduction play in the construction of national identities. Analysing images of political campaigns and activists as well as public discourses on motherhood, abortion and childcare, I will illustrate the importance that gender and sexuality assumed in German nation-building projects before and after its unification in 1990. After 1949, East and West German ideas of nationhood were premised on opposing ideas of gender roles, in that politicians within these two German nations mobilised distinct gender identities to assert their respective political system as superior and progressive. While in East Germany, the progressiveness of the socialist project was measured along the lines of women’s integration into the labour force; in West Germany, the idea that a woman’s identity was primarily rooted in motherhood played an influential role in nationalist discourses. Once East and West Germany reunified in 1990, these opposing ideas of gender roles clashed. This became particularly visible in the context of political debates around abortion and childcare. An analysis of these debates suggests that the “new” unified German nation was premised upon a story in which the West German idea of the housewife-breadwinner model prevailed. This was diametrically opposed to what was framed as the East German “woman-worker” who had free access to abortion, and was abjected as immoral and backward. Analysing how such a national story was constructed is highly valuable, as it elucidates the ways in which gender has become a constitutive and structural element in the nation-building process of unified Germany to the present day.

Background: The major objective of the study was to assess whether the extent of health inequalities varies between East and West Germany and whether differences in social Inequalities between both parts of Germany are associated with differences in health inequalities. Methods: Data were available from a representative sample of 5,311 persons from West Germany and 2,414 persons from East Germany in the same age group (25–69 years). The study protocol was nearly identical in both studies. Socioeconomic status (SES) was assessed by household equivalent income and by educational level. Health status was assessed by perceived general health and by the number of chronic conditions. Absolute differences as well as relative differences (odds ratios) in the morbidity rates between low and high SES groups were calculated. All analyses were performed separately for men and women. Results: Income inequalities are larger in West Germany as compared with East Germany, but there are minor differences between East and West Germany concerning educational inequalities and morbidity rates. Just about all measures indicated that health inequalities favouring the upper socioeconomic groups exist in East Germany as well as in West Germany and that there are no significant differences in the extent of health inequalities between both parts of Germany. Conclusion: Using two data sets which were raised with nearly identical study protocols, it can be concluded that health inequalities are very stabile as they do not seem to differ substantially despite the fact that both parts of Germany have experienced different social systems during the past 45 years.