Unter den Reformplänen der großen Koalition wurde und wird die Verlängerung der Lebensarbeitszeit besonders kontrovers diskutiert. Beatrice Scheubel, Center for Economic Studies (CES), und Joachim Winter, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, untersuchen das häufig vorgebrachten...

For policy reforms to increase a society's welfare, reliable information on people's prefer-ences and expectations is crucial. Representative opinion polls, often involving simplified questions about the complex topics under debate, are an important source of information for both policy-makers...

An important aspect of household surveys is the design of consumption questions. A controlled experiment shows that a single question on total monthly nondurables expenditure and a design with 35 disaggregated categories produce different results. These differences vary with household...

Population aging and pension reform will have profound effects on international capital markets. First, demographic change alters the time path of aggregate savings within each country. Second this process may be amplified when a pension reform shifts old-age provision towards more pre-funding....

Population aging and pension reform will have profound effects on international capital markets. First, demographic change alters the time path of aggregate savings within each country. Second, this process may be amplified when a pension reform shifts old-age provision towards more pre-funding....

Taller workers earn on average higher salaries. Recent research has proposed cognitive abilities and social skills as explanations for the height-wage premium. Another possible mechanism, employer discrimination, has found little support. In this paper, we provide some evidence in favor of the...

Germany has one of the most generous public pension and health insurance systems of the world, yet private savings are high until old age. Savings remain positive in old age, even for most low income households. How can we explain what we might want to term the 'German savings puzzle?' We...

Throughout the world, population aging is a major challenge that will continue well into the 21st century. While the patterns of the demographic transition are similar in most countries, timing differs substantially, in particular between industrialized and less developed countries. To the...

In this paper, we present a quantitative analysis of the international capital flows induced by differences in population aging processes across countries and by pension reforms. In the vast majority of countries, demographic change will continue well into the 21st century. It is well known that...

In households surveys, quantities of interest are frequently elicited using categorized (range-card) formats rather than open-ended questions. One advantage of this format is that is typically reduces item non-response. Unfortunately, results from research in social psychology suggest that the...