Piketty (2014) documents how the share of aggregate income going to capital in the United States has risen in the post-war era. Rognlie (2015) has since shown that this is largely due to the housing sector. This paper explores the determinants of the secular rise in the share of housing capital...

We estimate the ratio of private wealth to national income, βpt, for Switzerland over the period 1900-2018. Our results indicate that the development of βpt in Switzerland did not follow a U-shaped pattern as in most European countries, but that the evolution was extraordinarily stable, with...

We study the redistributive effects of a gradual productivity shift from tangible to intangible capital. Intangible asset creation relies on the commitment of skilled human capital. To ensure retention,firms reward innovators by deferred compensation, so funding demand by firms drops as the...

We estimate the ratio of private wealth to national income, βpt, for Switzerland from 1900 to 2020. Our results indicate that over the 20th century, βpt did not follow a U-shaped pattern as in most European countries. Instead, its was exceptionally stable at around 500%. We argue that this...

The rising concentration of low-income households and ethnic minorities has become an important policy issue in Germany. The Ruhr Area is particularly interesting, because it is one of the largest conurbations in Europe and experienced radical structural changes in the past, which are connected...