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This paper analyses the contribution of capital income to income inequality in a cross-national comparison. Using micro-data from the Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF) for three prominent panel studies, namely the BHPS for the UK, the SOEP for West Germany, and the PSID for the USA, we use the factor decomposition method described by Shorrocks (Econometrica 50:193-211, ). The factor decomposition of disposable income into single income components shows that capital income is exceedingly volatile and that its share in disposable income has risen recent years. Moreover, capital income makes a disproportionately high contribution to overall inequality in relation to its share in disposable income. This applies to Germany and the USA in particular. Thus capital income accounts for a large part of disparity in all three countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, which measures the effects of the aggravating financing problems of the legal age security system on the satisfaction with the age safety device among the younger generation in the country. The satisfaction with the age safety device is determined in particular by factors, which are decisive also for the relative positioning of the legal old age pension insurance in the legal age security system. The recent generation with its financial age safety device is more dissatisfied than the older. It was shown that a closed social network has a positive influence on the satisfaction, whereas periods of unemployment affect themselves negatively. For this reason it seems urgently required that the conditions for the grant of national subsidies are loosened and the circle of the favored persons is expanded. This appears all the more urgent, as with the job market reform, the age safety device of subscribers of the unemployment pay II usually worsens compared with former unemployed person assistance receivers.

The article discusses the effects of statutory freedom of choice in health insurance agencies and the determining factors in German clients' carrier choices. The aim of the legislation was to encourage competition and its potential cost-saving efficiencies as well as to undo injustices of the prior system. Client preferences were said to be based on image, service, and premium rates.