Abstract The financial and economic crisis has drawn attention again on the question how sensitive the German public pension system (Gesetzliche Rentenversicherung) reacts to cyclical shocks. We identify three important channels through which business cycle movements may affect the pension...

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...