The intergenerational reproduction of wealth inequality and its socio-demographic conditions in Germany

在许多富裕的民主国家，财富不平等已经达到了历史最高水平。代际财富再生产导致成年子女与同龄的父母拥有相似的财富地位，这对于理解不平等的出现特别相关。除了直接财富转移之外，还有至关重要的间接生殖过程，例如投资于儿童教育。我们预计，财富的再生产受到社会人口状况的严重影响，即社会结构的伴侣选择、生育率和死亡率。因此，本项目使用多代人的生命历程视角来调查德国的代际财富再生产及其社会人口状况，并考虑到性别差异。具体而言，该项目追求的目标是(1)全面描述德国代际财富再生产的程度，(2)在国际上比较德国的财富再生产程度，(3)从父母的角度确定下一代财富再生产的相关社会人口条件，(4)从儿童的角度确定财富再生产的相关社会人口条件，以及(5)描述和解释德国财富再生产的性别差异。使用了来自社会经济小组(SOEP)的五波二手数据。德国财富数据基础设施的可持续改善是通过将1988年SOEP的财富数据公之于众来实现的。这些数据采用回顾和前瞻性相结合的方法进行分析。这两种方法的结合使人们能够产生关于财富创造的互补知识。我们主要使用多水平模型来估计财富中的兄弟姐妹相关性和代际相关性，并应用现代纵向分析方法，如具有反向待遇权重概率的边际结构模型。德国的结果通过与美国的平行分析在国际上进行了比较。该项目创造了关于德国社会结构僵化以及社会人口过程对不平等随时间重现的影响的新知识。这些知识可以产生重要的社会政策影响。

Wealth inequality has reached historically high levels in many rich democracies. Intergenerational wealth reproduction that cause adult children to occupy similar wealth positions compared to their parents at a similar age are particularly relevant to understanding the emergence of inequalities. In addition to direct wealth transfers, there are also crucial indirect processes of reproduction, e.g. investing in children's education. We expect that the reproduction of wealth is critically influenced by socio-demographic conditions, i.e. socially structured partner choice, fertility, and mortality. Therefore, this project uses a multi-generational life course perspective to investigate the intergenerational wealth reproduction and its socio-demographic conditions in Germany, taking gender differences into account. Specifically, the project pursues the goals of (1) comprehensively describing the extent of intergenerational wealth reproduction in Germany, (2) comparing the extent of wealth reproduction in Germany internationally, (3) identifying the relevant socio-demographic conditions of wealth reproduction for the next generation from the parents' perspective, (4) identifying the relevant socio-demographic conditions of wealth reproduction from the children's perspective, and (5) describing and explaining the gender differences in wealth reproduction in Germany. Secondary data from the Socio-economic Panel (SOEP) for five waves are used. A sustainable improvement of the data infrastructure for wealth in Germany is achieved by making wealth data for 1988 from the SOEP publically accessible. The data are analysed using combined retrospective and prospective approaches. The combination of both approaches enables the generation of complementary knowledge about wealth reproduction. We mainly apply multi-level models to estimate sibling correlations and intergenerational correlations in wealth and apply modern methods of longitudinal analysis such as marginal structural models with inverse probability of treatment weighting. The results from Germany are compared internationally through parallel analyses for the USA. The project creates new knowledge about the rigidity of the German social structure and the influence of socio-demographic processes on the reproduction of inequality over time. This knowledge can generate important social policy implications.