The obsolete capital stock in eastern Germany has to be rebuilt. This will increase the capital demand in Germany for the next few years. In addition to the increased demand for capital, government transfers need to be financed. The macroeconomic accounting identity requires that net savings of...

The saving ratio of households in Germany has increased in the past few years when the income trend was weak. This could be due to precautionary saving. In this paper, the importance of precautionary saving against income uncertainty is analyzed empirically using micro data from the German...

Die Riester-Förderung soll dazu beitragen, dass häufiger und mehr für die Altersvorsorge gespart wird. Der Einfluss der Riester-Förderung auf die Sparneigung von Haushalten mit niedrigem Einkommen ist dabei ein zentrales Kriterium zur ökonomischen Evaluation dieser Politik. Unsere...

This working paper presents the results of a survey of 330 schoolchildren from three primary schools in small rural towns in North-Rhine Westfalia and Lower Saxony. The questions dealt with pocket money and savings behaviour and the data related to two main issues. Firstly, a measure was made to...

Since 2002 the German government has promoted private retirement saving plans by means of special subsidies and tax incentives (Riester scheme). This policy mainly targets low-income households. Using data from the German Socio-economic Panel, we scrutinize the impact of the Riester scheme on...

In 2001 the German government started to promote the development of private pensions by means of special saving subsidies and tax incentives (Riester-scheme). That policy especially targets households with relatively low incomes. Using data from the German Socio-economic Panel, we scrutinize the...

Ersparnisbildung in Lebensversicherungen wird im deutschen Einkommensteuersystem durch die Steuerfreiheit der Zinserträge bei Vertragsablauf und durch die Möglichkeit zum Sonderausgabenabzug der Versicherungsprämien gefördert. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der Effekt dieser Steuervorteile...

Since 2002 the German government seeks to stimulate private retirement savings by means of special allowances and tax exemptions - the so-called Riester scheme. We apply matching and panel regression techniques to assess the impact of the Riester scheme on households' propensities to save in a...

With a view to investigating the presence of adverse selection, we analyze determinants of private pension insurance uptake of German households in a probit model. Using survey data on savings and old-age provision, we find that subjective life expectancy is positively related with the...