The article discusses the question whether or not family allowances have a strictly economic rationale.

With the development of household budget systems and with regard to the requirements of the European Union with new EU-SILC approaches, the cumulation of cross-section surveys to an integrated information system is recently discussed and required. In particular the reconstruction of household...

The authors outline a public pension reform where contribution rates are reduced to zero over a very long horizon and in a Pareto-improving fashion.

The paper evaluates the theoretical literature on public pension schemes. First, the terms pay-as-you-go and capital reserve are made precise. These two systems are then compared, followed by a consideration of their efficiency properties. Thereafter conversion policies are discussed.

The article reports research results on funded and unfunded pension schemes in an easily accessible form.

The article demonstrates that it is possible to convert a pay-as-you-go pension scheme into a capital reserve pension scheme in a Pareto-improving fashion and in finite time.

The article investigates whether compulsory old age provisions are justified from an economic point of view. According to a standard argument, some people would not provide sufficiently for their old age in the absence of a compulsory pension system – they would become a charge to the public....