Aufgrund bestehender und sich weiter verstärkender Altersarmut steht der Reformbedarf der Leistungsseite der Gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung (GRV) im Zentrum der wissenschaftlichen und politischen Diskussion. Im Fokus stehen dabei Personen mit lückenhaften Erwerbsbiographien und niedrigen...

The public debt stock in some economically developed countries continues to increase because of a lack of tax revenues and the concomitant burdens of social security. Many of those countries suffer from lower birth rates and consequently, have fewer children. Child allowances might be an...

Das russische Rentenversicherungssystem befindet sich in der Krise. Wie in einer Vielzahl entwickelter Staaten auch, erodiert die Basis des umlagefinanzierten Rentensystems ('Generationenvertrag') auf Grund des demografischen Wandels. Dies wird verstärkt durch die mangelnde Wirtschaftskraft...

The public pension system in Germany allows early retirement albeit at the cost of pension deductions. Deductions are calculated under the assumption that life expectancy is independent of the age of retirement and apply equally for men and women. The 'fair' amount of deductions is currently...

This paper starts out with a brief discussion of the historical background, the justifications and the political forces behind the built up of the modern welfare state. It also summarizes its major achievements in terms of economic efficiency and redistribution. The paper also tries to identify...

The Swedish pension reform of 1999-2003 provides an opportunity to study whether and how important economic incentives are for the timing of retirement. The new pension system provides a much closer link between contributions and benefits than the former system. I study whether the reform has...

The Non-financial (Notional) Defined Contribution (NDC) PAYGO pension scheme is a recent innovation and its generic dimensions have not previously been explored in a coherent context. This paper does this. It derives and analyzes the demographic, economic and distributional properties of NDC....

Population aging will be a major determinant of long-run economic development in industrial and developing countries. The extent of the demographic changes is dramatic in some countries and will deeply affect future labor, financial and goods markets. The expected strain on public budgets and...

As his new term begins, President George W. Bush has been trying to focus his domestic agenda on what he calls the ownership society, a sweeping vision of an America in which more citizens would hold significant assets and be free to make their own choices about providing for their health care...

Using data from three waves of the General Social Survey on retirement and older workers (1994, 2002 and 2007), we document the evolution of retirement patterns over the last three decades. We combined the analysis of retirement ages of actual retirees with data on expected retirement ages of...