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...

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...

Starting from the premise that productivity is heterogeneous across firms, Melitz (2003) explains why individual productivity is key in determining the capability of a firm to export. In this paper we build a model along Melitz's lines to show that also financial capacity, captured by the level...

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...