This paper surveys a dozen international comparative studies of poverty, income distribution and older people in industrialized countries using data up to the mid-1990s. It addresses a series of questions. At what level are the incomes of the elderly relative to the population as a whole? How...

Aging involves not one but several transitions. People move from working to not working, from relying upon labor income to relying on transfers. They also tend to live in smaller households, not only because any children will have moved away but also because, at some stage, a spouse dies. People...

In der Oktober-Umfrage des Ökonomenpanels wurden Professoren der Volkswirtschaftslehre zur Zukunft des deutschen Rentensystems befragt. Anlass hierzu war die Forderung von Finanzminister Olaf Scholz, das aktuelle Rentenniveau auch über das Jahr 2025 hinaus auf dem aktuellen Niveau zu...

Im November 2018 verabschiedete der Bundestag ein Rentenpaket, das Anfang Januar 2019 in Kraft trat und für Vertrauen in die Stabilität der Rente sorgen soll. Festgelegt wurde unter anderem eine »doppelte Haltelinie« – die bis 2025 gelten soll –, für das Rentenniveau einerseits und für...

Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht auf Basis der Daten des Mikrozensus 2014 die zentralen Strukturmerkmale der Soloselbstständigkeit im Handwerk. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf der Beschreibung der sozialen Lage der Soloselbstständigen in Handwerksberufen, welche in erster Linie...

Housing is an important sector of the economy. It has widespread implications for investment, banking, saving and employment. Home ownership has been linked to building social capital and a sense of community. Furthermore housing equity is a significant element of retirement accumulation for...

Increases in longevity mean the size of New Zealand's public retirement income programme, New Zealand Superannuation, will automatically expand unless the age of eligibility is increased. This paper analyses the consequences of expanding New Zealand Superannuation on a save-as-you-go basis...

This paper explores the KiwiSaver information contained in two sources: the administrative data from the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and the Survey of Family, Income and Employment (SoFIE). In particular, the paper explores the membership and contribution information, explaining significant...

The objective of the paper is to explore the saving and consumption responses of a representative household to a range of policy interventions such as changes in taxes and pension settings. To achieve this, it develops a two-period life-cycle model. The representative household maximises...