Entitlements for social security and occupational pensions present a major wealth component and play a central role for financial security. However, most individual-level data lacks information on pension wealth. By linking various data sources, this contribution estimates the present value of...

This study combines data from the HFCS (Household Finance and Consumption Survey) and the social security registry to estimate the present value of public pension entitlements for Austria in the year 2017. The household averages of the present value of pension entitlements and of private net...

Auch rund 25 Jahre nach dem Mauerfall verfügen private Haushalte in Ostdeutschland mit im Durchschnitt 67 400 Euro über nicht einmal halb so hohe Vermögen wie die in Westdeutschland, wo es rund 153 200 Euro sind. In beiden Landesteilen ist der Immobilienbesitz die quantitativ wichtigste...

Very nearly 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, households in eastern Germany have an average net worth of 67,400 euros which is less than half that of their counterparts in western Germany with an average net worth of 153,200 euros. In both parts of the country, real estate ownership is...

In his seminal paper, starting from the premise that productivity is heterogeneous across firms, Melitz (2003) nicely accounts for the stylized fact that the level of individual productivity is key in determining the capability of a firm to export. In this paper we build a model along Melitz's...

We use new population-wide register data on inheritances and wealth in Sweden to estimate the causal impact of inheritances on wealth inequality. We find that inheritances reduce relative wealth inequality (e.g., the Gini coefficient falls by 5-10 percent) but that absolute dispersion increases....

The analytical starting point determines the course of a theoretical investigation and, ultimately, the productiveness of an approach. The classics took production and accumulation as their point of departure; the neoclassics, exchange. Exchange implies behavioral assumptions and notions like...

This paper discusses issues that arise in the comparison of estimates of wealth holdings and their distribution in light of data for selected OECD countries. We find large differences in the level of wealth, depending on whether the mean or median levels are compared across countries....

This paper investigates to what extent the wealth accumulation of immigrants is explained by their degree of assimilation, defined as the immigrants' capacity to become more similar over time to the local people in terms of their norms, values, behaviours, and socioeconomic characteristics. The...

Research on wealth inequality usually focuses on real and financial assets, while pension wealth - the present value of future pension entitlements from public and company pension schemes - receives little attention. This is astonishing, given that pension plans play an important role for...