Das deutsche Gesundheitssystem mag einen hartnäckigen Schnupfen haben, aber mit einem Schnupfen kann man leben, und andere Gesundheitssysteme haben auch ihre Probleme. An der Zukunftsfähigkeit des deutschen Gesundheitssystems muß aber gezweifelt werden, da viele Selbstheilungskräfte im...

Over and again, the reduction of working time is praised as the instrument against unemployment in Europe. While the first round argument appears obvious – less work for some will create more work for others – second round repercussions, such as consequential labor cost increases, put doubt...

Zwei Jahre nach der "Riester-Reform" befindet sich die gesetzliche Rentenversicherung in Deutschland wieder in Reformnöten. Die der Riester-Reform zugrunde liegenden Annahmen über Demographie und Arbeitsmarktentwicklung erwiesen sich als unrealistisch. Ein wichtiger Ansatzpunkt für...

Germany relies almost exclusively on a public pay-as-you-go pension system for old-age in-come provision. This mandatory “retirement insurance” has become under severe pressure, mainly from population aging and from incentive effects that have reduced labor supply. This paper argues Germany...

Early retirement in Germany is very costly and amplifies the burden which the German public pension system has to carry due to population aging. This paper shows that the German pension system provides strong incentives to retire early. The paper provides relatively robust econometric evidence...

As the publicly financed pay-as-you-go pension systems in Europe come under increasing pressure, workers and politicians rediscover private savings for retirement in Europe – the provision of self-financed rather than state-financed old-age insurance. This paper summarizes our knowledge about...

Germany is not a country of stock holders – but this may change. This paper analyses the main trends in stockholding – either directly or indirectly through mutual funds and other managed investment accounts – among German households. We find a significant shift towards riskier portfolios...

Public pensions – the primary pillar of old-age income provision – will, in the future, be less generous than they have been in the past, in particular owing to the impact of demographic change. The pension gap is supposed to be plugged by the second and third pillars of pension...

Germany still has a very generous public pay-as-you-go pension system. It is characterized by early effective retirement ages and very high effective replacement rates. Most workers receive virtually all of their retirement income from this public retirement insurance. Costs are almost 12...