One Pillar Crumbling, the Others too Short: Old-Age Provision in Germany

Martin Werding

No 5760, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Public pay-as-you-go pensions still form the dominant pillar of old-age provision in Germany. This is in marked contrast to the situation in Anglo-Saxon countries. It has advantages if labour markets are strong, e.g., following a quick recovery from the Great Recession. It has disadvantages, as Germany will be ageing very rapidly in the near future. Following a series of reforms, benefit levels will decline, while contribution rates still go up, and additional cover from private or occupational pension schemes is urgently needed. Thus far, steps in this direction have been half-hearted, and the financial crisis impedes a further shift. Nevertheless, despite the differing traditions, important aspects in current debates now converge to those discussed in the UK or the US.

Keywords: old-age provision; public pensions; occupational pensions; pre-cautionary saving; demographic ageing; pension reform; simulations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E27 G28 H55 J11 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp5760.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: One pillar crumbling, the others too short: old-age provision in Germany (2016)
Journal Article: One Pillar Crumbling, the Others Too Short: Old-Age Provision in Germany (2016)
Working Paper: One pillar crumbling, the others too short: Old-age provision in Germany (2016)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5760

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Klaus Wohlrabe ().