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As the increasing impact of financialization on our lives, an extensive awareness of insurance – an integral part of financial knowledge, proves ever more important. A conducted in Poland survey shows that Poles, especially women, the less educated and those living in rural areas, have very limited knowledge about insurance. In order to increase this knowledge and financial awareness, the state should not only strive to provide a proper education, but also take actions to broaden the actual level of this knowledge and foster informed financial behaviour on the part of individuals.

Migration patterns in Germany have changed considerably during the post-war period. The active recruitment of “guest workers” stopped during the 1970s and was replaced by family reunification. Two big crisis-driven immigration waves swept Germany, following the collapse of Yugoslavia and the crises in the countries from Syria to Afghanistan. These immigration waves triggered legislation aimed at reducing immigration incentives, especially in the asylum law. From the early 2000s on, German policy turned more liberal following the EU Directives on freedom of movement and for highly qualified persons from non-EEA countries. Migration patterns changed dramatically, with EEA countries becoming the leading source of German immigration. EEA countries replaced the Anglo-Saxon immigration countries as the leading sources and destinations of migration. It is reassuring for economic policy that EU migrants, notably from Bulgaria and Romania, display high levels of employment and have boosted German employment, while unemployment rates reached historic lows. During the past decades, migration obstacles for EEA citizens have been lowered or abolished. Main obstacles to immigration of non-EEA citizens persist due to the restrictive law on residence permits. As a result, student visas, academic credentials, or family reunification are the main legal pathways to Germany. Given the difficulty to proof the equivalence of a foreign non-academic degree, it is far more promising for persons from third countries to apply for asylum with the chance to get a permanent residence permit after several years as a tolerated migrant.

Die Konjunkturpakete können nicht aus dem regulären Staatsetat finanziert werden. Was bleibt, ist eine massive Kreditaufnahmen. Ist der Anstieg der Staatsverschuldung angesichts des dramatischen Konjunktureinbruchs gerecht-fertigt? Für Winfried Fuest, Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln und Fach-hochschule der Wirtschaft, Bergisch Gladbach, verbietet sich »sowohl ein untä-tiges finanzpolitisches Erstarren wie auch hektischer Aktionismus«. Er emp-fiehlt, die Strategie einer diskretionären antizyklisch ausgerichteten Finanzpolitik zur Bekämpfung der aktuellen Krise einzusetzen, selbst dann, wenn dadurch die konjunkturbedingten Defizite wieder in die Höhe schnellen. Eine solche staatliche Finanzpolitik müsse sich aber an bestimmten Kriterien ausrichten, z.B. sollten Maßnahmen mit »Gießkannencharakter« und dauerhaft angelegte konsumtive wie auch sozialpolitische Ausgabenprogramme vermieden, hinge-gen staatliche Investitionen wie auch Steuer- und Sozialabgabensenkungen zur Stärkung des Potentialwachstums herangezogen werden. Auch Reinhold Schnabel, Universität Duisburg-Essen, ist skeptisch: »Auch vermeintlich gute Schulden sind eine Last: Der Anstieg der Staatsverschuldung wird zu einer nochmals steigenden Zinsbelastung der öffentlichen Haushalte in naher Zukunft führen.« Eine weitere Gefahr sieht Schnabel darin, dass einige der Maßnahmen nicht bloß vorübergehende Ausgabenerhöhungen darstellen, sondern eine an-haltende Erhöhung von Staatsausgaben bewirken und somit die dringend erfor-derliche Konsolidierung der öffentlichen Haushalte, die nach der Rezession auf der Tagesordnung steht, bedrohen könnten.

The 2014 pension reform has three main components. First disability pensions have been increased by about two earnings points, an average monthly gain of 40 euros. In addition low wages in the four years preceding disability-related retirement will now be disregarded. However, since these new rules only apply to retirement after July 2014 they fail to fight poverty among current disability-related retirees. Second an additional credit for all births before 1992 (“mothers’ pension”) is extremely costly and unnecessary. Poverty prevention is weak due to a strict income test in the welfare system for the elderly. Third early retirement at age 63 without actuarial adjustment has been reintroduced This is a costly measure with negative effects on both equality and efficiency. The additional child credit and early retirement provisions reduce the financial and social sustainability of the German public pension system.

In this paper, the effects of social assistance reform proposals are discussed for the case of Germany using a computable general equilibrium model that incorporates a discrete choice model of labour supply. This allows us to identify general equilibrium effects of the reforms on wages and unemployment. The simulation results show that general equilibrium wage reactions mitigate labour supply effects and that unemployment in fact decreases. Wage reactions are thus sufficiently strong to prevent additional labour supply from translating into higher unemployment. The simulations indicate that major cuts in welfare payments are necessary to produce substantial employment effects.

Labor market participation rates of West German females have risen during the last decades, whereas participation rates of males have declined or remained stable. Nevertheless, differences in aggregate gender specific participation rates remain. The purpose of this paper is to compare life cycle participation and employment profiles of West German males and females of different skill levels. Going beyond the descriptive cross tabulations of participation and employment rates by year, skill level, and sex, this paper uses a model which simultaneously takes into account the effects of time, age, and birth cohort membership. The estimation results allow for the construction and comparison of gender and skill specific life cycle participation and employment profiles. Even though the gap in average participation and employment rates has narrowed over time, the results confirm a persistent gender gap in the pattern of labor market participation and employment over the life cycle.

In this paper we estimate the effects of an unconditional basic income on labor supply and income distribution with a special focus on the incentives to work in the family context. An unconditional basic income guarantees every citizen a minimum ncome without any means-testing. We simulate a proposed basic income reform with a detailed microsimulation model, estimate labor supply reactions with a structural labor supply model and perform distributional analysis using micro data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. As the originally proposed basic income concept yields a very high deficit, we also analyze two budget neutral alternatives. Comparing labor supply and distributional results of the budget neutral alternatives, the well-known equity-efficiency trade-off is unveiled. In the family context our analyzes suggest that the unconditional character of the basic income causes increasing family incomes, but also serious disincentives to work for secondary earners.

A current proposal for reforming the German statutory health insurance suggests replacing earnings-related contributions by per-capita health premia. Combining a computable general equilibrium analysis with abundant empirical data on heterogenous household types, we investigate both the distributional and allocative impact of such a reform proposal. Our results indicate efficiency gains in terms of GDP and employment. This is because employed households of all skill types would increase their labour supply. Yet, while these household types would benefit from introducing health premia, others, such as those including pensioners or unemployed individuals, may suffer in terms of equivalent variations, despite tax-financed compensating transfers to these low-income households. Nonetheless, such transfers are an essential part of the reform proposal in order to mitigate redistributional effects. By comparing two different compensation schemes, we find that higher transfers go along with higher GDP and employment. This result may indicate that more redistribution comes at no efficiency costs.

"We estimate the effects of the reform of German Unemployment Insurance that replaced the wage-related Unemployment Assistance with an income maintenance Programme and stronger means testing. We model the tax-benefit system and use the Socio-Economic Panel. We estimate a discrete labour supply model and simulate the behavioural and distributional effects using the pseudo distribution method. Poverty and inequality decline overall, since households with children and low incomes gain, while those who used to earn high wages and received high unemployment transfers lose most. The behavioural responses mitigate the redistributive impact of the reform." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Kurzfassung (deutsch) Executive summary (English)

Neuere Studien der Familienokonomie zeigen, dass die Verfugbarkeit von Kinderbetreuung fur die Erwerbstatigkeit von Muttern und damit fur die Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Familie eine grose Rolle spielt. Besonders wichtig ist dabei jedoch, dass das Betreuungsarrangement den zeitlichen und qualitativen Bedurfnissen der Familie entspricht (Buchel und Spies, 2002). Ein zentraler Punkt hierbei sind die taglichen Offnungszeiten, die Urlaubsregelungen, aber auch die Frage der Betreuung im Falle einer Krankheit des Kindes oder der Kinder. Immer noch leiden aber viele Einrichtungen in offentlicher oder kirchlicher Tragerschaft unter schweren Mangeln bezuglich der Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Familie. Gerade in diesem Punkt konnen betriebliche Betreuungsarrangements, die einerseits auf die spezifischen Bedurfnisse der Belegschaft und andererseits auf die spezifischen betrieblichen Arbeitszeitarrangements abgestimmt sind, eine gute Erganzung anderer Betreuungsarrangements darstellen. Die Betreuung muss hierbei nicht notwendiger Weise im Betrieb oder in einem betriebseigenen Kindergarten erfolgen. Unternehmen konnen auch Zuschusse zu nicht-betrieblichen Einrichtungen zahlen. Die Betriebe konnen hierbei durch ihre Nachfragemacht verbunden mit finanziellen Anreizen das Entstehen geeigneter Betreuungseinrichtungen fordern, seien sie offentlicher, freigemeinnutziger oder privater Art.

Welche Anforderungen an den Arbeitsmarkt sind mit der schrittweisen Anhebung der Regelaltersgrenze in der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung auf 67 Jahre verbunden? Heinrich Tiemann, Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, unterstreicht, dass nicht nur die Bundesregierung und die Verantwortlichen in den Ländern und Kommunen, sondern auch die Sozialpartner auf betrieblicher und überbetrieblicher Ebene gefordert sind. Stefanie Wahl, Institut für Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Bonn, sieht die größte Anpassungslast bei den Unternehmen und Arbeitnehmern: "Erstere müssen künftig Innovationen und Produktivität, sprich: ihre internationale Wettbewerbsfähigkeit mit den vorhandenen älter werdenden Mitarbeitern erreichen. Letztere müssen alles daran setzen, dass sie die fachlichen und physisch-psychischen Anforderungen bis zum Erreichen der Altersgrenze erfüllen." Alexander Gunkel, Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände, fordert ergänzend beschäftigungsfördernde Reformen, insbesondere im Bereich der Bildung. Und für Reinhold Schnabel, Universität Duisburg-Essen, ist es entscheidend, die Qualifikation der Erwerbstätigen zu sichern.

Die Reform der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft — sie ist eine komplexe Dauerautgabe mit hohem politischem Stellenwert, die entsprechende Aufmerksamkeit in den Medien erfahrt. Freilich handelt es sich bei den Debatten und der Berichterstattung selten um einen gesamtwirtschaftlich rationalen Diskurs: Anstelle einer ganzheitlichen Perspektive, die sowohl die Beziehungen zwischen den sozialen Sicherungssystemen als auch deren Interdependenzen mit der Wirtschaftsordnung einbezieht, herrscht eine isolierende Betrachtungsweise vor, die auf punktuelle Finanzierungsengpasse in den Teilsystemen reagiert und diese mit oft kurzatmigen und unsystematischen Masnahmen zu beheben sucht. Der Blick auf den ubergeordneten Reformbedarf bleibt dabei versperrt.

Die Risiken, krank oder pflegebedurftig zu werden, sind derzeit im Rahmen eines Systems abgesichert, das aus der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung (GKV) und Sozialen Ptlegeversichemng (SPV) einerseits und privaten Krankenversicherungen (PKV) andererseits besteht. Im Vergleich zur Sozialhilfe oder Alters Sicherung sind Gesundheitsnsiken erheblich komplexer, denn es ist nicht nur das Niveau des Versicherungsschutzes zu bestimmen, sondern auch dessen Struktur. Wahrend Sozialhilte und Alters Sicherung hauptsachlich ungebundene Geldleistungen bieten, erhalten die Versicherten bei Krankheit oder Pflegebedurftigkeit im wesendichen gebundene Leistungen, und zwar unabhangig davon, ob formal das Kostenerstattungs- oder das Sachleistungsprinzip gilt.

Im obigen Text wurde eine Gesamtreform vorgestellt, die alle Glieder der sozialen Sicherung umfast. Manche VertellungsWirkung eines Reformelements, die bei isolierter Betrachtung ungunstig erscheinen mag, stellt sich in Ansehung der Gesamtreform vorteilhafter dar, weil die Teilmasnahmen oft gegenlaufig auf den Wohlstand bestimmter Bevolkerungsgruppen einwirken — wer hier verliert, gewinnt dort. Das Gesamtpaket ist so konzipiert, das moglichst alle gewinnen. Um jedoch die Mechanik der einzelnen Reformelemente zu verdeutlichen, werden einige von ihnen zunachst getrennt dargestellt.

Um konkrete Vorschlage fur die Gestaltung des sozialen Sicherungssystems zu entwickeln, ist es sinnvoll, zunachst gedanklich einen Schritt zuruckzutreten und sich zu fragen, welchen Leitlinien eine solche Reform folgen konnte. Nur auf diese Weise wird sichergestellt, das die Konzeptionen der verschiedenen Teilsysteme aufeinander abgestimmt sind und einer einheitlichen Philosophie folgen. Die Leitlinien mussen vollstandig sein in dem Sinne, das sie den Grundgedanken der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft hinreichend genau abbilden, abstrakt genug, um fur alle Teilsysteme anwendbar zu sein, aber auch konkret genug, um als verbindliche Richtschnur dienen zu konnen.

Wahrend die Sozialhilfe einen Schutz gegen samtliche Lebensrisiken bietet und damit einen Eckpfeiler des sozialen Sicherungs system s darstellt, schutzt die Arbeitslosenversicherung vor den finanziellen Folgen des spezifischen Risikos, als Arbeitnehmer beschaftigungslos zu sein. Dasselbe Risiko wird auch durch die Arbeitslosenhilfe abgesichert, die freilich keine Versicherung im engeren Sinn ist, weil sie durch Steuern finanziert und nur bei Bedurftigkeit gezahlt wird. Tatsachlich besteht zwischen allen drei genannten Teilsystemen ein enger Zusammenhang, weil die Sozialhilfe ebenfalls vor den materiellen Folgen der Beschaftigungslos lgkeit schutzt, sofern der Betroffene keine Lohnersatzleistun- gen — im wesentlichen Arbeitslosengeld und Arbeitslosenhilfe — erhalt oder diese zur Bestreitung des Lebensunterhalts nicht ausreichen. Daher liegt es nahe, Sozialhilfe und Lohnersatzleistungen gemeinsam zu erortern.

Die Studie stellt einen ganzheitlichen, langfristig orientierten Entwurf zum Umbau der sozialen Sicherungssysteme vor. Sie ist Teil der Gemeinschaftsinitiative Soziale Marktwirtschaft, die von Bertelsmann Stiftung, Heinz Nixdorf Stiftung und Ludwig-Erhard-Stiftung getragen wird. Aus vertragstheoretischer Sicht werden ordnungspolitische Leitlinien begrundet, denen ein System der sozialen Sicherung folgen sollte. Sodann untersucht die Studie fur jeden Teil des sozialen Sicherungssystems Sozialhilfe, Arbeitslosenversicherung, Alterssicherung, Kranken- und Pflegeversicherung welche institutionellen Arrangements mit diesen Leitlinien bestmoglich in Einklang stehen. Im Rahmen einer finanzpolitischen Begleitung werden anschliessend unerwunschte Umverteilungswirkungen ausgeglichen. Abschliessend werden die gesamtwirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen quantifiziert.

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the institutional background of saving in Germany and the links between saving patterns and public policy. The Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichproben (EVS) is claimed to be a representative sample of Germany's private households. Because taking part in the EVS is voluntary for the interviewed households, the Federal Statistical Office applies quota sampling to reach proper representation. The EVS does not include segments of the population living in institutions and households with very high incomes. The coverage of the EVS income is checked against the national income and product accounts. Such a comparison is meaningful only if methodological differences are accounted for. The national accounts statistics include private non-profit organizations, whereas the EVS includes only private households. The Federal Statistical Office carries out several checks for the plausibility of the EVS. Germany has a contribution-based pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system. This system is monolithic, and it covers almost all workers and provides almost all retirement income in a single system with relatively transparent rules. The crowding-out result as it pertains to current retirement income is also at odds with the fact that Germany has a high saving rate and, in particular, that the German elderly have on average real and financial wealth levels that would suffice for about 10 years of their retirement income.

Using information on family background, we estimate returns to education, allowing for the heterogeneity of returns. In order to control for the unobserved heterogeneity shared by family members, we construct a siblings sample and employ family fixed-effects and family correlated random-effects models. Our main result is that family background still matters despite the substantial political efforts to equalize educational opportunities in Germany. Persons with less-educated parents earn lower wages, but have higher returns to education. This supports the view that persons from less-educated backgrounds still face higher marginal costs in the educational system. The same interplay between the wage level and marginal returns is found for the effect of gender and cohort.

The rise of unemployment in West Germany is often attributed to an inflexibility of the wage structure in the face of a skill bias in labor demand trends. In addition, there is concern in Germany that during the 70s and 80s unions were pursuing a too egalitarian wage policy. In a cohort analysis, we estimate quantile regressions of wages taking account of the censoring in the data. We present a new framework to describe trends in the entire wage distribution across education and age groups in a parsimonious way. We explore whether wage trends are uniform across cohorts, thus defining a macroeconomic wage trend. Our findings are that wages of workers with intermediate education levels, among them especially those of young workers, deteriorated slightly relative to both high and low education levels. Wage inequality within age-education groups stayed fairly constant. Nevertheless, the German wage structure was fairly stable, especially in international comparison. The results appear consistent with a skill bias in labor demand trends, recognizing that union wages are only likely to be binding floors for low-wage earners.

Germany has one of the most generous public pension and health insurance systems of the world, yet private savings are high until old age. Savings remain positive in old age, even for most low income households. How can we explain what we might want to term the 'German savings puzzle?' We provide a complicated answer that combines historical facts with capital market imperfections, housing, tax and pension policies. The first part of the paper describes how German households save, based on a synthetic panel of four cross sections of the German Income and Expenditure Survey ('Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichproben') collected between 1978 and 1993. The second part links saving behavior with public policy, notably tax and pension policy.

This paper describes how German households save and how their saving behavior is linked to public policy, notably pension policy. The analysis is based on a synthetic panel of four cross sections of the German Income and Expenditure Survey ("Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichproben," EVS, 1978, 1983, 1988, and 1993). The paper carefully distinguishes between several saving measures and concepts. It separates discretionary savings from mandatory savings and uses two flow measures: first, the sum of purchases of assets minus the sum of sales of assets and, second, the residual of income minus consumption. Our main finding is a hump-shaped age-saving profile with a high overall saving rate. However, savings remain positive in old age, even for most low-income households. How can we explain what may be termed the "German savings puzzle"? Germany has one of the most generous public pension and health insurance systems in the world, yet private savings are high until old age. We provide a complicated answer that combines historical facts with capital market imperfections and a distinction between the role of discretionary and mandatory savings.

Dieser Beitrag behandelt den Ubergang vom Arbeitsmarkt in den Ruhestand und die Einkommenslage von Rentnerhaushalten in Deutschland. Wir stutzen unsere empirische Analyse auf das Sozio-oekonomische Panel, die Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichprobe 1993 und Daten der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung.

This paper describes how German households save and how their saving behavior is linked to public policy, notably pension policy. The analysis is based on a synthetic panel of four cross sections of the German Income and Expenditure Survey ("Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichproben," EVS,1978, 1983, 1988, and 1993). The paper carefully distinguishes between several saving measures and concepts. It separates discretionary savings from mandatory savings and uses two flow measures: first, the sum of purchases of assets minus the sum of sales of assets and, second, the residual of income minus consumption. Our main finding is a hump-shaped age-saving profile with a high overall saving rate. However, savings remain positive in old age, even for most low-income households. How can we explain what may be termed the "German savings puzzle"? Germany has one of the most generous public pension and health insurance systems in the world, yet private savings are high until old age. We provide a complicated answer that combines historical facts with capital market imperfections and a distinction between the role of discretionary and mandatory savings.

This paper describes the German public old age social security program (`Gesetzliche Rentenversicherung) and its incentive effects on retirement decisions....It summarizes labor market behavior of older persons in Germany during the last 35 years and surveys the empirical literature on the effects of the social security system on retirement in Germany. The paper shows that even after the 1992 reform the German system is actuarially unfair. This generates a substantial redistribution from late to early retirees and creates incentives to early retirement. (EXCERPT)

This paper describes the German public old age social security program (,Gesetzliche Rentenversicherung') and its incentive effects on retirement decisions. The paper presents the key features of the system and expresses retirement incentives in the form of accrual rates of social security wealth and implicit tax rates on earnings. It summarizes labor market behavior of older persons in Germany during the last 35 years and surveys the empirical literature on the effects of the social security system on retirement in Germany. The paper shows that even after the 1992 reform the German system is actuarially unfair. This generates a substantial redistribution from late to early retirees and creates incentives to early retirement. Indeed, average retirement age is very low in West Germany (about age 59) and even lower in East Germany. This tendency towards early retirement is particularly hurting in times of population aging when the German social security contribution rate is expected to increase dramatically and will substantially exceed the rates in other industrialized countries.

In this paper we examine the effects of regional and industry specific labor market indicators on wages and labor supply of married females. Based on the standard life cycle labor supply theory we derive a two equation censored panel model and estimate it using the Minimum Distance Method.

This paper investigates the choice of living arrangements among elderly Americans. It has two specific aims. First, because health is not directly measurable and can only be described by indicators such as ADLs and IADLs, it explores a new econometric approach to model the influence of the latent health status on living arrangements. Second, it exploits the NBER Economic Supplement of the Longitudinal Study on Aging to investigate the role of housing and financial wealth in the choice of living arrangements.

This paper investigates the choice of living arrangements among elderly Americans. It has two specific aims. First, because health is not directly measurable and can only be described by indicators such as ADLs and IADLs, it explores a new econometric approach to model the influence of the latent health status on living arrangements. Second, it exploits the NBER Economic Supplement of the Longitudinal Study on Aging to investigate the role of housing and financial wealth in the choice of living arrangements.