Wealth inequality in interwar Poland

Abstract

Poland introduced an extraordinary wealth tax. We use the internal statistics of the Ministry of the Treasury to estimate wealth inequality in interwar Poland. This data source has not been previously used by researchers. There are no estimates of wealth inequality in interwar Poland available in the literature.According to our estimates, the top 0.01% of the wealth distribution controlled 16.4% of total private wealth. The wealth share of the top 1% stood at 42.5%. The top decile owned 67.3% of total private wealth. Wealth inequality varied strongly across regions.A comparison of wealth inequality in Poland with wealth inequality in other European countries in the interwar period yields a diverse picture. The wealth share of the top 0.01% was the highest in Europe, the wealth share of the top 1% was in the middle of the European ranking, the wealth share of the top 10% was almost the lowest in Europe. The small elite of super-rich (0.01%) was very wealthy in comparison to the European peers, but the wealth share of the rest of the top decile was relatively low. The unequal development of former partitions may partially explain high very top wealth shares.

Modernization of the Fiscal System: Some Remarks on the Introduction of Capital and War Wealth Levies in Selected Countries From Western and Central Europe

“…There was extreme damage that had to be compensated for. The strength of compensatory arguments in this particular case might have been caused by high inequalities in Polish society (Wroński, 2022). Additionally, although inflation never reached extreme levels, like in Germany, inflation was still accelerating greatly in the period preceding the tax.…”

“…The Act was jointly signed by different Polish politicians, but the initiator and active executor of the regulations was Władysław Grabski, a strong figure who, accidentally, for a short time, did not hold any function in the government. The regulation of CL was one of the elements of the stabilization policy package (Grata, 2008;Koryś, 2018;Wroński, 2022). In this case, it was aimed mainly at the wealthy part of society (Bukowski, Novokmet, 2019).…”

“…Having achieved this amount, the tribute was not to be collected any further. Thus, an atypical combination of progressivity and a quota (or, as Marcin Wroński (2022) proposed, "a so-called 'contingent'") was used.…”

Elita majątkowa Warszawy lat siedemdziesiątych XX wieku

“…Ewa Barylewska-Szymańska i Zofi a Marciakowska analizując podatki wprowadzone w erze napoleońskiej, opisały socjotopografi ę Gdańska w pierwszej połowie XIX w. 17 Paweł Bukowski i Filip Novokmet zbadali ewolucję nierówności dochodowych w Polsce od końca XIX w. do czasów dzisiejszych 18 . Na podstawie danych z poboru nadzwyczajnego podatku majątkowego z 1923 r. oszacowałem rozkład majątku w II Rzeczypospolitej 19 . Przytoczone w tym akapicie badania -oraz jeszcze wiele dotyczących innych państw 20 -jasno wskazują, że w przeciwieństwie do klasycznej hipotezy Simona Kuznetsa 21 , poziom nierówności ekonomicznych był wysoki już w czasach przedkapitalistycznych, co więcej, nie wykazuje tendencji do spadku powyżej pewnego poziomu rozwoju gospodarczego.…”

Income inequality in the Duchy of Warsaw (1810/11)

“…Wroński (2022b) provides measures of income inequality in Warsaw in the 1830s. According to his research income inequality in the city was very high at the beginning of industrialisation, and then declined between 1833and 1925. Wroński (2022a measures wealth inequality in the interwar period based on administrative data from extraordinary wealth tax, and observes extremely high wealth shares of the wealth groups at the very top (0.1%, 0.01%).…”