Arbeitspapier
The Evolution of Top Incomes in Switzerland over the 20th Century
We study the income concentration in the Swiss federation over the course of the 20th century using federal income tax statistics. The results suggest that top incomes in Switzerland evolved over time rather remaining constant across different income shares. Income concentration peaked during the 1940s, with a slight downward trend until the 1990s. Over the last 15 years, top incomes have recovered. In contrast, the evolution of income concentration is much more heterogeneous on the sub-federal level for the 26 cantons because of the federalist constitution, which has a decentralized taxing power. Consequently, top incomes in some cantons have a downward trend; others show a fall and rise of top incomes over the century, as exemplified by the Kuznets' hypothesis; some develop rather constantly; and some cantons even produce a striking upward trend.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: CREMA Working Paper ; No. 2011-06
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
- Subject
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Income inequality
Top incomes
Taxation
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Schaltegger, Christoph A.
Gorgas, Christoph
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA)
- (where)
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Basel
- (when)
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2011
- Handle
- Last update
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10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Schaltegger, Christoph A.
- Gorgas, Christoph
- Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA)
Time of origin
- 2011
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