This study provides new evidence on top income shares in Germany from industrialization to the present. Income concentration was high in the nineteenth century, dropped sharply after WWI and during the hyperinflation years of the 1920s, then increased rapidly throughout the Nazi period beginning in the 1930s. Following the end of WWII, German top income shares returned to 1920s levels. The German pattern stands in contrast to developments in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where WWII brought a sizeable and lasting reduction in top income shares. Since the turn of the millennium, income concentration in Germany has been on the rise and is today among the highest in Europe. The capital share is consistently positively associated with income concentration, whereas growth, technological change, trade, unions, and top tax rates are positively associated in some periods and negative in others.

中文翻译：

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1871-2014 年德国最高收入人群

这项研究为德国从工业化到现在的最高收入份额提供了新的证据。19 世纪的收入集中度很高，在第一次世界大战后和 1920 年代恶性通货膨胀期间急剧下降，然后在 1930 年代开始的整个纳粹时期迅速增加。二战结束后，德国的最高收入份额恢复到 1920 年代的水平。德国模式与法国、英国和美国的发展形成鲜明对比，在二战期间，这些国家的最高收入份额大幅下降且持续存在。自世纪之交以来，德国的收入集中度一直在上升，如今已跻身欧洲最高之列。资本份额始终与收入集中度呈正相关，而增长、技术变革、贸易、工会、