April 2019

22Apr

The Effect of Pension Subsidies on the Retirement Timing of Older Women: Evidence from a Kink Design in Germany

By Han Ye (University of Mannheim; IZA) I estimate the effect of additional pension benefits on women’s retirement decisions by examining a German pension subsidy program for low-pay workers. The subsidies have a kinked relationship with the recipients’ past contributions, creating a sharply different slope of benefits for similar women on either side of the kink point. I find that a 100 euro increase in the monthly benefit induces female recipients to claim their pensions eight months earlier. A back-of-the-envelope...

April 22, 2019
Aging, Articles, Pension design, ,
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February 2019

28Feb

Germany struggles to stop Nazi war payment suspicions

A Belgian bid to stop Berlin from paying pensions to alleged Nazi collaborators has exposed a cloud of confusion and suspicion - including in Germany - over payments still made to 2,000 people worldwide. The controversial law in question is known innocuously as the Federal German War Victims' Assistance Act, or the "Bundesversorgungsgesetz", but tabloid-style Bild daily calls it "Hitler's pensions". The debate surrounding the law exploded again on February 20th when the Belgian parliament voted on a resolution...

February 28, 2019
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19Feb

Germany. Retirement: income for the pension insurance increased significantly

The revenue of The statutory pension insurance increased significantly in January: With 19.4 billion euros, the level was 5.3 percent year-on-year. According to a spokesperson of the German statutory pension insurance scheme, the development is due mainly to the increase in wages and high employment. However, the so-called Sustainability reserve of the pension Fund decreased in January to 38 billion Euro, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points compared to January, 2018. That’s the equivalent of 1,69 month of...

February 19, 2019
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19Feb

Munich Re closes longevity swap deal with Lafarge pension scheme

German reinsurer Munich Re has completed a longevity swap deal with the Trustee of Lafarge UK Pension Plan, the UK pension scheme of French industrial company Lafarge. The arrangement is intended to reduce the Plan’s exposure to longevity risk, which arises when pensioners live longer than expected and thus claim more money on their retirement plans. Lafarge identified longevity risk as the largest individual risk in its plan due to its focus on defined benefit (DB) schemes, which pay...

February 19, 2019
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January 2019

19Jan

The Effect of Self-Employment on Income Inequality

By Stefan Schneck (Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn) It is well known that the self-employed are over-represented at the bottom as well as the top of the income distribution. This paper shifts the focus from the income situation of the self-employed to the distributive effects of a change in self-employment rates. With representative German data and unconditional quantile regression analysis we show that an increase in the proportion of self-employed individuals in the labor force increases income polarization by tearing...

January 19, 2019
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August 2018

30Aug

Germany. German coalition agrees upon measures to stabilize pensions

Labor Minister Hubertus Heil told ZDF television Wednesday that the measures agreed upon late Tuesday would bring "stability and security" for retirees by keeping pensions at 48 percent of a retiree's average working salary until 2025. Other measures include reducing employees' contributions to unemployment insurance by 0.5 percentage points to 2.5 percent of an employee's salary. Chancellor Angela Merkel's junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats, had hoped to stabilize pensions until 2040, but Heil said he was satisfied with the compromise,...

August 30, 2018
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28Aug

Germany: Merkel’s government argues about future pensions

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is arguing about pensions, with Merkel’s center-left coalition partners pressing for a guarantee that they will remain stable until 2040. The coalition of Merkel’s conservative Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats agreed when it took office earlier this year to ensure pensions remain at the current level of 48 percent of average wages through 2025. The Social Democrats are struggling in polls and looking to woo left-leaning voters. Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat,...

August 28, 2018
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July 2018

09Jul

Pension Plans in Germany: Market Sales in Germany

From Editorial DataGroup Europe The Pension Plans Germany eBook provides 14 years Historic and Forecast data on the market for each of the 5 Products and Markets covered. The Products and Markets covered (Pension Plans) are classified by the Major Products and then further defined and analysed by each subsidiary Product or Market Sector. In addition full Financial Data (188 items: Historic and Forecast Balance Sheet, Financial Margins and Ratios) Data is provided, as well as Industry Data (59 items)...

July 9, 2018
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June 2018

16Jun

Third Party Administration of Insurance & Pension Revenues in Germany: Product Revenues in Germany

By Editorial DataGroup Europe The Third Party Administration of Insurance & Pension Revenues Germany eBook provides 14 years Historic and Forecast data on the market for each of the 22 Products / Services covered. The Products / Services covered (Third party administration of insurance & pension Lines) are classified by the 5-Digit NAICS Product Codes and each Product and Services is then further defined and analysed by each 6 to 10-Digit NAICS Product Codes. In addition full Financial Data (188...

June 16, 2018
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March 2018

08Mar

Old-age Labor Force Participation in Germany: What Explains the Trend Reversal among Older Men? And What the Steady Increase among Women?

By Axel Börsch-Supan, Irene Ferrari The aim of this paper is to illustrate for Germany the factors that may explain the U-shaped pattern of older men’s labor force participation - from a long declining trend that began in the early 1970s to an increasing trend starting from the late 1990s - and at the same time the steady increase in older women’s labor force participation. In a first step, we provide graphical evidence of the trends of various variables which...

March 8, 2018
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