Estonia is widely regarded as a paramount example for a successful transformation of a socialist economic system to a functioning market economy. Against the backdrop of this positive image which contrasts strongly with the crisis scenarios in Southern Europe the remaining problems of Estonia...

Das Umlage- und das Kapitaldeckungsverfahren werden verglichen. Das Kapitaldeckungsverfahren hat eine größere Rendite für den einzelnen und bringt gesamtwirtschaftliche Effizienzgewinne mit sich: Es wird mehr Kapital gebildet, und Verzerrungen am Arbeitsmarkt werden beseitigt. Bei einem...

This paper examines the role of the health gradient – the positive correlation between household income and health – in individual retirement behavior, using data from the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP). We first estimate agegroup-specific health gradients and find their slope increases...

The paper compares the pay-as-you-go system and a capital funded system of old age insurance. The capital funded system has a higher rate of return. Pension income can be obtained at lower costs for the individual. This implies efficiency gains in terms of higher savings and reduced distortion...

The paper presents labor productivities in the member countries of Euroland. The result is that there is quite a divergence in labor productivities (per head) in the European Monetary Union. The Netherlands and Italy reach 85 percent of the West German level, Spain 62 and Portugal 35. This...

The aggregate fiscal burden of all family-supporting fiscal programs in Germany amounts to 321.1 bill. DM in 2000 and to 328.1 bill. DM in 2001. These amounts increase to 345.0 bill. DM (353.4 bill. DM) if payments for educational support and expenditures to universities for educational purposes...

In Deutschland dürfen Sozialhilfeempfänger nur einen kleinen Teil ihres Einkommens aus Erwerbstätigkeit oberhalb eines bestimmten Betrags behalten. Dies führt dazu, daß für einige Sozialhilfeempfänger nur schwache ökonomische Anreize zur Erwerbstätigkeit vorhanden sind. Dieses...

This paper is concerned with establishing the data base that is necessary to analyse the double bürden argument which has been used to reject a sweeping reform of the German old-age pension System. We show that this argument does not hold if the existing pay-as-you-go system were to be replaced...

There are only few estimates of the returns on contributions to the German public pension System (GPPS). Those that are published ränge between nominal rates of future returns between about 4,5 % and 48 %, indicating that GPPS treats different groups of people differently. The authors develop a...