The paper is available open access 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We published a paper on the GC Wealth Project in @springernature.com Scientific Data, describing our extensive public data base on private wealth. In this blog article, we give some insights about the work behind the paper communities.springernature.com/posts/mappin...

NEW JOB AD -

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER in PUBLIC ECONOMICS -
(“Drivers and consequences of rising economic inequality”)

2 positions (Deadline May 17 2026)

sites.google.com/site/salvato...

Kudos to Salvatore Morelli and his tremendous team, at both Roma Tre and @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social for their incomparable contribution to #wealth research.

@morellisal.bsky.social @ignacioflores.bsky.social @smaexie.bsky.social @severinrapp.bsky.social @schechtlm.bsky.social and many more.

Written by M. Longmuir @smaexie.bsky.social, F. Disslbacher, @severinrapp.bsky.social, F. Di Biase, G. Rella, F. Subioli, A. Rego Johnson, M. Targa, S. Morelli @morellisal.bsky.social, M. Schechtl @schechtlm.bsky.social, T.Asher, L. Giangregorio & I. Flores @ignacioflores.bsky.social

Very happy to be a little part of it, I learned a lot during my time @stone-lis.bsky.social. The GC Wealth Project provides a carefully curated data warehouse on wealth topography, wealth inequality and taxation, and it keeps on growing. Check it out👇

Worst first: Thermal retrofits, carbon prices, and inequality The energy price crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the heightened vulnerability of low-income households to rising heating costs, …

For full (open) access to the paper visit: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #EnergyTransition #EnergyPoverty #CarbonPricing #EPBD #EnergyJustice #Climate

- Enforce existing standards such as performance standards for components or parts of minimum insulation of building ceilings. - Policy stability - to enable industry and construction sector to invest in capacity. This will reduce modernization costs.

- Minimum energy performance standards for residential buildings. France could serve as an example, where buildings must meet specific energy-efficiency standards for landlords to allow them to continue renting them out.

Core policy components to reach these objectives will be: -Addressing specific financing needs of low-income households in energy-inefficient buildings -subject-focused, not object-focused.

- Reduces the heating burden of the 10% most exposed low-income households from 30% to 17% of income. - Cuts tenant energy poverty from 10–18% to as low as 0-2%. - Delivers the largest energy savings potential to reduce gas imports dependency and to make buildings heat pump ready.

EU countries have committed to modernize “worst first”. Worst first turns building modernization into a social strategy, to enhance resilience of our society to global energy price shocks.
Assuming 2024 fuel price levels, our simulations show that a Worst-First strategy:

- Important: 10% of households in the bottom deciles spend about 30% of their income on heating. - Tenants are systematically more exposed to high heating prices as they tend to live in less energy-efficient buildings. With Energy Performance of Buildings directive,

We show that high energy prices particularly affect vulnerable households: - At 2024 energy prices, low-income households in Germany spend 13–17% of their income on heating (median), while top income deciles spend 5% or less.

Shout-out to my incredible co-authors: Sophie Behr, Merve Küçük, and @karstenneuhoff.bsky.social

With yet again escalating fossil fuel prices, the distributional implications of heating policy deserve renewed attention.

In our new Energy Policy Paper we address the question “Does buildings modernization protect against energy cost shocks?”. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Abstract This paper provides the fi rst systematic evidence on intergenerational wealth mobility in Germany using newly harmonized wealth data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) spanning nearly three decades (1988–2017). Linking parents and their adult children, we estimate intergenerational rank–rank correlations (IRRC) in net wealth to assess the persistence of relative wealth positions across generations. We fi nd substantial wealth persistence in Germany, with an IRRC of around 0.25. Strikingly, this association remains highly stable across two observation windows (1988–2002 and 2002–2017), despite pronounced changes in the macroeconomic and institutional environment. Mobility curves indicate that the rank–rank relationship is approximately linear and exhibits little evidence of strong non-linearities at the top or bottom of the parental wealth distribution. We further document limited heterogeneity by off spring gender and birth cohort, and show that controlling for parental income and education attenuates the IRRC only modestly, suggesting that wealth captures an additional dimension of socioeconomic advantage beyond standard indicators of parental background. In an international perspective, Germany exhibits lower intergenerational wealth persistence than the United States. Exploratory evidence suggests that cross-country diff erences in homeownership may account for a sizable part of this gap, highlighting the potential role of housing-related institutions in shaping intergenerational wealth mobility.

scatter plot titled “The Great Gatsby Curve in Wealth.” X-axis: Wealth inequality in 2005 (more inequality to the right). Y-axis: Intergenerational wealth correlation (higher values mean less mobility). Countries country United States, Sweden, Italy, Taiwan, Norway, Germany, South Korea, Denmark, France, Australia, Japan inear trend line (slope ≈ 0.46) shows a positive relationship: countries with greater wealth inequality tend to have higher intergenerational wealth correlation, meaning lower wealth mobility. The United States and Sweden toward the upper-right; Denmark and France are lower-left; Germany in the right-middle.

Interesting working paper on wealth mobility in Germany by Markus Grabka, @pmlersch.bsky.social, @smaexie.bsky.social, and @drschnitzlein.bsky.social population-economics.committee.socialpolitik.de/sites/defaul...

New WP alert!👇👇👇

This was a reality in Germany for years. This can get really nasty.

Excited to share that I’ve joined the Social Policy Research Centre at UNSW as a casual Research Officer. I’ll be working with @brucebradbury.bsky.social on his ARC project on inequality, prosperity and the Australian welfare state.

The psychological impact of inequality – and how it destroys our communities Inequality has a profound impact on opportunities, health and the environment. But ultimately it weakens the very social fabric that holds communities together

“Ever greater disparities between the rich and the poor lead to a dangerous weakening of the fabric that holds communities together” – Aini Gauhar of @equalitytrust.bsky.social in out latest blog post. What needs to be done? #LSEInequalitiesBlog

🔗 buff.ly/ge4V2ZL

Applications Are Open for Two Postdoctoral Positions at the GC CUNY Stone Center - Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality The Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality is seeking applicants for an eighth cohort of postdoctoral scholars. These full-time, two-year positions will begin in August 2026.

We invite applications for two postdoctoral scholars! These 2-year positions start in Aug. 2026 and are based at the GC CUNY Stone Center in NYC. One is focused on #mobility and #poverty, the other on #wealth and/or wealth inequality. Apply by Nov. 3!
#EconSky #Sociology #PoliSciSky
bit.ly/40TZR6J

For six months, I've said that threats to economic data have been more collateral damage than intentional harm.

No longer.

Firing the head of the BLS is five-alarm intentional harm to the integrity of US economic data and the entire statistical system.

I wrote a little piece based on the GC Wealth Project. #econsky

It was great to meet many old and new friends at #ECINEQ2025. 😊

The GC CUNY Stone Center community showed up! Max Longmuir and Severin Rapp - current Postdoctoral Scholars and members of the GC Wealth Project team - presented ongoing research projects on wealth.
@smaexie.bsky.social @severinrapp.bsky.social @morellisal.bsky.social

More from Max! Economic causes of rising wealth inequality have received widespread attention, but how have demographic shifts influenced this trend? A new WP by Lisa Klein, @pmlersch.bsky.social & @smaexie.bsky.social looks at Germany's changing demographics & wealth inequality.

bit.ly/3Ilvn6S

I shared some thoughts on researching #wealth #inequality and intergenerational #mobility. Happy for any feedback. 😊 #econsky

Just published in @jpube.bsky.social:

"The Influence of Inheritances on Wealth Inequality in Rich Countries"

By @morellisal.bsky.social, Brian Nolan, @juancpal.bsky.social, & Philippe Van Kerm

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#econsky #publiceconomics #publicfinance

New Working Paper Alert! Joint work with my amazing co-authors Lisa Klein and @pmlersch.bsky.social! We show how demographic changes contributed to #wealth #inequality in #Germany from 1988 to 2017. #econsky