We start out from a comparison of aggregate trends in German households’ portfolio shares and participation rates as they derive from micro data and from the National Accounts. We find the broad trends supported by both data sources. By international comparison the portfolio share of safe...

Die Riester-Rente ist nach der zunehmenden Etablierung als Altersvorsorgeprodukt wieder in der politischen Debatte. Konkret diskutiert wird zum einen eine Ausweitung des förderfähigen Personenkreises bis hin zur Variante einer allgemeinen staatlich geförderten privaten Altersvorsorge. Zum...

We exploit data on German households’ savings in life insurance products, the characteristics of life insurance products and the specific tax treatment of savings in life insurance products to assess the importance of different savings motives and the effectiveness of tax incentives. Our...

Rising inequality in income, wealth and consumption has received a good deal of public attention in the past years. At the same time, also macroeconomists are more and more interested in inequality as they have expanded their models to incorporate heterogeneity in the household sector. We supply...