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      Top Wealth and Its Historical Origins: Identifying Entrenched Fortunes by Linking Rich Lists over 100 Years

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      Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World
      SAGE Publications

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          Abstract

          The authors examine the historical origins of Germany’s 1,032 largest fortunes. The innovation of this research is to link a rich list from 2019 with rich lists from 1913 and genealogical data provided in Wikidata. The authors find a remarkable historical continuity of large fortunes despite two world wars, the Great Depression, regime changes, and different currency reforms. One third of the companies associated with today’s largest fortunes were founded before World War I. About 8 percent of today’s fortunes can be traced back to fortunes on rich lists from 1913. Regression analyses show that these entrenched fortunes rank on average higher on the rich list than fortunes of younger origin. Network analyses indicate that some of today’s largest fortunes are intertwined through marital lines, hinting at social closure at the top. These findings indicate that the accumulation and perpetuation of fortunes over many generations is an important feature of top wealth in Germany.

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          Capital in the Twenty-First Century

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            Inequality in the long run.

            This Review presents basic facts regarding the long-run evolution of income and wealth inequality in Europe and the United States. Income and wealth inequality was very high a century ago, particularly in Europe, but dropped dramatically in the first half of the 20th century. Income inequality has surged back in the United States since the 1970s so that the United States is much more unequal than Europe today. We discuss possible interpretations and lessons for the future. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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              Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World
                Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World
                SAGE Publications
                2378-0231
                2378-0231
                January 2023
                September 07 2023
                January 2023
                : 9
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Germany
                Article
                10.1177/23780231231192774
                13f51e87-7ca0-4f81-87fb-b73d525934e7
                © 2023

                https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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