According to Max Weber, affectual action is one of four types of behavior. This type of action differs from instrumentally rational behavior in a way that the actors do not deliberately choose means with respect to certain ends, but are driven by their emotions prevalent in the situation. The...

Demographic change confronts the German Pay-As-You-Go pension system with serious problems. For this reason, reductions in the level of public pensions were adopted under the pension reform in 2001, which also strengthened significantly the funded second and third pillars of old-age provision....

The respondents’ susceptibility to item nonresponse is an important determinant for the quality of political science survey data. In particular, one has to expect biased samples when groups of respondents systematically differ in their nonresponse rates. Our study tests firstly whether and how...

Individuals are exposed over the life cycle to considerable biometric, economic, family and political risks. Do we have the right institutions to cover these risks efficiently? We use the term “institutions“ in a broad sense comprising individual saving, family help, private insurances and...

The "Jahresbericht" gives a comprehensive report of our research activities during the year 1997. It is only available in german.

After having forbidden companies to provide financial forecasts until 1973, the SEC now encourages them to do so because of the relevance of prognosis for investors. As forecasts are inherently uncertain, there is always the risk for the companies to be suit when predictions fail. Therefore the...

With the German pay-as-you-go pension system under severe pressure, private retirement savings will gain more and more importance in the future. This assigns additional responsibility to individuals to choose appropriate saving levels and to make efficient investment decisions to secure old-age...