Thanks to the reform process between 1992 and 2007, Germany was in a very good position to master demographic change. These reforms were farsighted, they stabilised the public pension system and they significantly increased employment, the foundation of every old age provision. The “Pension...

In the German pension debate, reform options are repeatedly proposed that are doomed to failure right from the start as they cannot be legally implemented to begin with. One of these is the inclusion of civil servants in the German state pension scheme. This option, however, is prohibited by the...

This article examines recent pension reforms in OECD countries. All countries are facing the challenge of designing both financially and socially sustainable pension policies in a context of weak economic growth, low financial returns and ageing populations. In some cases, countries have been...

Demographic change inevitably shifts the balance between contributors and recipients in the pension system. Moreover, in the German pension system benefit levels are closely linked to the current state of economic prosperity. Therefore, in the coming decades stabilisation of old-age security...

Das Gesetz über Leistungsverbesserungen in der Gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung ist am 1.7.2014 in Kraft getreten. Zu einer Reduktion der Altersarmut - wie die Aussagen im Bundestagswahlkampf 2013 vermuten ließen - trägt zumindest die abschlagsfreie Rente mit 63 nicht bei. Die Autoren aus dem...

Spätestens mit der Euro-Staatsschuldenkrise ab 2010 ist das Renteneintrittsalter zum europäischen Thema geworden. Mindestens implizit vorausgesetzt wird dabei, dass vor allem die südlichen EU-Länder aufgrund der Krise auch in diesem Politikfeld unter Handlungsdruck stehen. Von deutscher...