This study aims at estimating the losses in old-age wealth and forfeited returns. The analysis is based on the German SAVE study in 2008. In comparison to a scenario without the crisis individuals on average lost 4.3% of their financial wealth. Considering only wealth in investment classes...

In its annual report 2008/2009, the Council of Economic Advisors came forward with a proposal how to unify the German pension system. In this paper, we quantify the effects of this proposal. We show that the direction and size of the effects largely depend on the development of future wages. In...