The book examines the development and the dynamics of the personal distribution of income in Germany, Great Britain, Sweden and the United States and some other OECD countries. Starting with the distribution of labour income, the issue is then expanded to include all monetary incomes of private households and to adjust for household size by an equivalence scale. Some authors analyse one country in detail by decomposing aggregate inequality measures, other authors focus on direct comparisons of some features of the income distribution in Germany with those in Great Britain or in the United States. The results suggest dominant influences of unemployment as well as of tax and transfer policies and different welfare regimes, respectively, but also show that our knowledge about distributional processes is still limited.

The intention of this book is threefold: presenting and advancing German reporting on income distribution and poverty, looking at experiences with advanced reporting schemes in two other EU countries, and discussing concepts for comparable social monitoring in the European Union. The first group of papers elaborates on recent findings for Germany (trends in the personal distribution of income and income poverty, multidimensional approaches to measure poverty and extreme poverty, redistribution). Of special interest is a critical methodological review of the two main German databases for distribution analyses, taking the suggestions of the Canberra Group as a reference. The second group of contributions reviews research on income distribution and poverty in Great Britain and Ireland. The last paper discusses concepts of comparable indicators for poverty and social exclusion in the EU.

Richard Hauser Irene Becker Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, FrankfurtlMain This volume marks the end of a research project of the editors titled "The Devel opment of the Personal Distribution of Income in Germany" that was financed by the Hans Bockler Foundation from 1994 to 2001. This research concentrated on a national perspective, studying many aspects of income inequality and poverty in West Germany between 1969 and 1998 and extending the analyses to inequality in East Germany after the German reunification. Now at the end point of our empiri cal analyses, we want to expand the perspective to other research in this field, to challenges for future research, and to the European dimension, rather than to summarise all our results, which is done in another bookl. In 2001, the German goverrunent published its first Poverty and Wealth Re 2 port, which also draws on results from our research project. Thus, the intention of this volume is threefold: presenting and advancing Gernlan reporting on poverty in other coun and wealth, examining experience with advanced reporting schemes tries, and discussing comparative concepts for social monitoring in the European Union."

Irene Becker and Richard Hauser "Bringing Income Distribution in From The Cold" was the title Anthony B. Atkinson gave his Presidential Address to the Royal Economic Society in 1996. This provocative formulation was intended to draw attention to the way in which the subject of income distribution long has been marginalised in the field of economics (Atkinson 1997). In recent years, however, scientific interest in matters of personal income distribution has been growing. One reason for this recent concern stems from the political sphere: The factors of reinforced competition between countries due to the globalisation of markets and European integration, high unemployment rates and demographic changes necessitate reforms of labour markets, tax systems and social security systems. These reforms will affect both allocation and distribution, so that reliable information on both areas is needed to devise balanced political programs. Another reason for the burgeoning literature on personal income distribution is the improved availability of data on individual income, which are a major prerequisite for detailed analyses of distribution topics. Last but not least, the development of powerful computers, advanced statistics, econometric packages and extended micro-simulation models enables researchers both to work with huge individual data sets to describe and explain the personal distribution of income and to simulate the effects of political (social and economic) programs. The volume at hand is based on some of the research advances in this field during the last decade.

Der vorliegende Bericht versucht, okonomische, sozialpolitische und soziologische Ansatze und Betrachtungsweisen zu verbinden, um damit eine umfassendere Analyse des Transformationsprozesses zu leisten. Dass hier durch angesichts der unterschiedlichen Fachterminologien und -perspektiven manche "Bruche" entstehen, muss als "Preis" fur diesen Versuch in Kauf ge nommen werden. Die Berichtsgruppe hofft, mit dem Bericht einen Beitrag zur wissenschaftlichen Erforschung des bisherigen Transformationsprozesses zu leisten und der Offentlichkeit und der Politik Informationen und Anre gungen zu geben. Frankfurt am Main, 30. Juni 1996 Richard Hauser, Wolfgang Glatzer, Stefan Hradil, Gerhard Kleinhenz, Tho mas Olk, Eckart Pankoke 1. Einfuhrung Dieser Bericht behandelt einige Aspekte des in der Deutschen Demokrati schen Republik eingeleiteten und nach der Vereinigung in den neuen Bun deslandern sich fortsetzenden Transformationsprozesses von einem soziali stischen zu einem freiheitlich-demokratischen und sozialstaatliehen Gesell schafts- und Wirtschaftssystem. Obgleich es sich hierbei um einen Sonderfall des in allen ehemals sozialistischen Landern Mittel- und Osteuropas ablau fenden Transformationsprozesses handelt, erscheint es wichtig, zunachst ei nige allgemeine Charakteristika postsozialistischer Umbruche zu skizzieren. ' Zur Kennzeichnung der epochalen gesellschaftlichen Umbruchprozesse in Mittel- und Osteuropa wurden und werden verschiedene Begriffe verwen det. Die Palette reicht von "friedlicher Revolution" uber "nachholende Mo dernisierung" bis hin zu "Reform," "Transition" (also Ubergang), "radikaler Systemwechsel" oder "Transformation." Wahrend einige Begriffe- wie Re volution oder Transition - sich offensichtlich nur auf bestimmte Abschnitte beziehen, heben andere - wie nachholende Modernisierung - einzelne Aspekte hervor oder bleiben- wie Wandel oder Reform- allgemein."

Dieses praxisnahe, anschauliche und fundierte Fachbuch gibt - unterstutzt von zahlreichen Beispielen - eine integrative und handlungsorientierte Darstellung, wie der richtige Wirkungsbereich fur Unternehmen aus strategischer Sicht, d.h. jenseits von kurzfristigen "Angeboten," "Trends" oder rein finanziellen Interessen, bestimmt werden kann."