Altersvorsorge, Konsumwunsch und mangelnde Selbstdisziplin: Zur Relevanz deskriptiver Theorien für die Gestaltung von Altersvorsorgeprodukten

Marcel Normann and Thomas Langer ()
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Thomas Langer: Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster Lehrstuhl für BWL, insbesondere Finanzierung, Postal: Universitätsstraße 14-16 48143 Münster

No 01-40, Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications from Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim

Abstract: With the German pay-as-you-go pension system under severe pressure, private retirement savings will gain more and more importance in the future. This assigns additional responsibility to individuals to choose appropriate saving levels and to make efficient investment decisions to secure old-age income. A lack of self control, and the lure of immediate consumption can be expected to be major concerns for reaching a sufficient retirement income. Unfortunately, within the framework of neoclassical theory it is hardly possible to discuss the consequences of self control problems, appropriate incentive mechanisms, and the engineering of financial products. Instead, such analysis has to build on behavioral theories that abandon the stable and well defined preferences of the homo oeconomicus and explicitly model the conflicts between short-term and long-term interests. In this paper, we introduce such behavioral models, derive useful properties of retirement saving products, and discuss product modifications and innovations.

Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2001-05-29
Note: Financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB 504, at the University of Mannheim, is gratefully acknowledged.
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