Multidimensional affluence: Theory and applications to Germany and the US

This paper suggests multidimensional affluence measures for the top of the distribution. In contrast to commonly used top income shares, they allow the analysis of the extent, intensity and breadth of affluence in several dimensions within a common framework. We illustrate this by analyzing the role of income and wealth as dimensions of multidimensional well-being in Germany and the US in 2007 as well as for the US over the period 1989–2007. We find distinct country differences with the country ranking depending on the measure. While in Germany wealth predominantly contributes to the intensity of affluence, income is more important in the US.top incomes, multidimensional measurement, richness, wealth, inequality

Multidimensional Well-Being at the Top: Evidence for Germany

This paper employs a multidimensional approach for the measurement of well-being at the top of the distribution using German SOEP micro data. Besides income as traditional indicator for material well-being, we include health as a proxy for nonmaterial quality of life as well as self-reported satisfaction with life as dimensions. We find that one third of the German population is well-off in at least one dimension but only one percent in all three dimensions simultaneously. While the distribution of income has become more concentrated at the top, the concentration at the top of the multidimensional well-being distribution has decreased over time. Moreover, health as well as life satisfaction contribute quite substantially to multidimensional wellbeing at the top which has important policy implications.Multidimensional measurement, well-being, Germany

Multidimensional Well-Being at the Top: Evidence for Germany

This paper employs a multidimensional approach for the measurement of well-being at the top of the distribution using German SOEP micro data. Besides income as traditional indicator for material well-being, we include health as a proxy for nonmaterial quality of life as well as self-reported satisfaction with life as dimensions. We find that one third of the German population is well-off in at least one dimension but only one percent in all three dimensions simultaneously. While the distribution of income has become more concentrated at the top, the concentration at the top of the multidimensional well-being distribution has decreased over time. Moreover, health as well as life satisfaction contribute quite substantially to multidimensional wellbeing at the top which has important policy implications.multidimensional measurement, well-being, Germany

Learning to Singulate Objects using a Push Proposal Network

Learning to act in unstructured environments, such as cluttered piles of objects, poses a substantial challenge for manipulation robots. We present a novel neural network-based approach that separates unknown objects in clutter by selecting favourable push actions. Our network is trained from data collected through autonomous interaction of a PR2 robot with randomly organized tabletop scenes. The model is designed to propose meaningful push actions based on over-segmented RGB-D images. We evaluate our approach by singulating up to 8 unknown objects in clutter. We demonstrate that our method enables the robot to perform the task with a high success rate and a low number of required push actions. Our results based on real-world experiments show that our network is able to generalize to novel objects of various sizes and shapes, as well as to arbitrary object configurations. Videos of our experiments can be viewed at http://robotpush.cs.uni-freiburg.deComment: International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR) 2017, videos: http://robotpush.cs.uni-freiburg.d

The politicians’ wage gap: insights from German members of parliament

Using a unique dataset of German members of parliament (MPs) this paper analyzes the politicians’ wage gap (PWG). After controlling for observable characteristics as well as accounting for election probabilities and campaigning costs, we find a positive income premium for MPs which is statistically and economically significant. Our results are consistent with the citizen candidate model: The PWG amounts to 35–65% when comparing MPs to citizens in an executive position. However, it shrinks to zero when restricting the control group to top-level executives. This suggests that German politicians do not receive excessive pay when compared to senior executives.politicians’ wage gap; citizen-candidate model; office remuneration; outside earnings

Does Size Matter? The Impact of Changes in Household Structure on Income Distribution in Germany

Income inequality in Germany has been continuously increasing during the past 20 years. In general, this is understood as an increase in inequality of wages due to changes in bargaining power of employees. However, the role of changing household structure is widely neglected. Societal trends like a decline in birth rate and an increase in the risk of divorce affect per capita incomes, which has repercussions for the income distribution even if wages remain constant. The aim of this paper is to quantify the proportion of changing household structures in the increase in inequality. We find that the rise in inequality was indeed more due to changes of household structure and employment behavior rather than changes in wages. Moreover, a large part of this increase is compensated by the welfare state.income distribution, demography, household size, decomposition, Germany

The Politicians' Wage Gap: Insights from German Members of Parliament

Using a unique dataset of German members of parliament with information on total earnings including outside income, this paper analyzes the politicians' wage gap (PWG). After controlling for observable characteristics as well as accounting for selection into politics, we find a positive PWG which is statistically and economically significant. It amounts to 40-60% compared to citizens with an executive position. Hence, we show that the widely held claim that politicians would earn more in the private sector is not confirmed by our data. Our findings are robust with respect to potential unobserved confounders. We further show that the PWG exceeds campaigning costs and cannot be justified by extraordinary workload. Hence, our results suggest that part of the PWG can be interpreted as rent extraction. This calls for a reform of the regulation of outside earnings, which account for a sizeable share of the wage premium.Politicians' wage gap, descriptive representation, citizen-candidate model, political rents, outside earnings

Does Size Matter? The Impact of Changes in Household Structure on Income Distribution in Germany

In Germany, two observations can be made over the past 20 years: First, income inequality has been constantly increasing while, second, the average household size has been declining dramatically. The analysis of income distribution relies on equivalence-weighted incomes which take into account household size. Therefore, there is an obvious link between these two developments. The aim of the paper is to quantify how the trend towards smaller households has influenced the change in income distribution. In order to do so, we are using a decomposition of changes in inequality measures over time allowing for a separation between wage and demographic effects respectively. We propose similar decompositions for the change in poverty and richness as well and compare them with results that were obtained by a re-weighting procedure. Our results show that the income gap would also have increased without the demographic trend. But its level would be lower than it actually is. In addition, the demographic effect turns out to be larger for incomes before tax and benefits.Germany, decomposition, household size, demography, income distribution

Glycosylation of LRP6 regulates Wnt signaling

This study provides the first evidence that a GlcNAc transferase modulates canonical Wnt signaling. Furthermore, this study indicates that this GlcNAc transferase is involved in metabolic regulation of Wnt signaling