We investigate the development of public pensions in Germany and how its significance will change when the multi-pillar systems matures due to population aging. The message of our analysis is complex. Even after the pension reforms which took place between 2001 and 2007 public pensions will...

This paper investigates the savings behaviour of German households, especially their capability and their reasons to save. We find that about one third of private households do not save at all while about 50 percent of the households save very regularly. Savings rates appear to be related to...

This paper describes the German pension reform process 1992-2007 with a stress on a remark-able development: the public pay-as-you-go-financed pension system has almost silently moved from a traditional defined benefit system to a system which works in many respects like a defined contribution...

Pay-as-you go pension systems are an insurance against the risks of longevity-related old-age poverty and related risks. In addition, they are commonly also used as an instrument of redistribution. This paper provides alternative estimates of the transfer share in the German PAYG public pension...

In the discussion of a pension reform, an important issue is the difference of the return between a PAYG and a funded system. It is not as straightforward as often suggested, because problems like risk, insurance, and the transition to a reformed system have to be considered. This paper...

The German public retirement insurance is one of the most generous and universal pension systems in the world. At the same time, the system is under severe strain due to very strong population aging and shrinking system participation. Labor force participation of the elderly is therefore an...