Introduced 20 years ago as a part of the 2001 pension reform, the Riester pension is meant to function as an essential component of the German pension system with the aim of compensating for decreasing public pensions. However, data collected by the SOEP show that this objective has not yet been...

Vor 20 Jahren wurde im Zuge der Rentenreform 2001 die Einführung der Riester-Rente beschlossen: Die Riester-Rente sollte ein wesentlicher Baustein des Alterssicherungssystems in Deutschland werden und das sinkende Niveau der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung mindestens ausgleichen. Daten, die im...

Vor 20 Jahren wurde im Zuge der Rentenreform 2001 die Einführung der Riester-Rente beschlossen: Die Riester-Rente sollte ein wesentlicher Baustein des Alterssicherungssystems in Deutschland werden und das sinkende Niveau der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung mindestens ausgleichen. Daten, die im...

We provide levels of, compositions of, and inequalities in household augmented wealth - defined as the sum of net worth and pension wealth - for two countries: the United States and Germany. Pension wealth makes up a considerable portion of household wealth: about 48% in the United States and...

Research on wealth inequality usually focuses on real and financial assets, while pension wealth - the present value of future pension entitlements from public and company pension schemes - receives little attention. This is astonishing, given that pension plans play an important role for...

Research on wealth inequality usually focuses on real and financial assets, while pension wealth – the present value of future pension entitlements from public and company pension schemes – receives little attention. This is astonishing, given that pension plans play an important role for...

We provide levels of, compositions of, and inequalities in household augmented wealth - defined as the sum of net worth and pension wealth - for two countries: the United States and Germany. Pension wealth makes up a considerable portion of household wealth: about 48% in the United States and...

The recent financial crisis and historical record suggest important lessons about the design of national pension systems. First, wide fluctuation in asset returns makes it hard for well-informed savers to select a saving rate or a sensible investment strategy for DC pensions. Workers who follow...

We empirically investigate the distributional consequences of the Riester scheme, the main private pension subsidization program in Germany. We find that 38% of the aggregate subsidy accrues to the top two deciles of the population, but only 7.3% to the bottom two. Nonetheless the Riester scheme...

The stock market collapse led to political tensions between generations due to the fuzzy definition of the property rights over the pension funds’ wealth. The problem is best resolved by the introduction of generational accounts. Modern consumption and portfolio theory shows that the younger...