The German Savings Puzzle

Axel Börsch-Supan; Anette Reil-Held; Ralf Rodepeter; Reinhold Schnabel; Joachim Winter

doi:10.1006/reec.2000.0241

The German Savings Puzzle

Axel Börsch-Supan, Anette Reil-Held, Ralf Rodepeter, Reinhold Schnabel, Joachim Winter

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Germany has one of the most generous public pension and health insurance systems of the world, yet private savings are high and remain positive until 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 behaviour with public policy, notably tax and pension policy.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	15-38
Number of pages	24
Journal	Research in Economics
Volume	55
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1006/reec.2000.0241
State	Published - Mar 2001
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Household behaviour
Life-cycle hypothesis
Pensions
Saving
Social security

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10.1006/reec.2000.0241

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title = "The German Savings Puzzle",

abstract = "Germany has one of the most generous public pension and health insurance systems of the world, yet private savings are high and remain positive until 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 behaviour with public policy, notably tax and pension policy.",

keywords = "Household behaviour, Life-cycle hypothesis, Pensions, Saving, Social security",

author = "Axel B{\"o}rsch-Supan and Anette Reil-Held and Ralf Rodepeter and Reinhold Schnabel and Joachim Winter",

note = "Funding Information: This paper has profited greatly from discussions with Agar Brugiavini, Mike Hurd, Tullio Jappelli, Jim Smith and Gert Wagner. We are grateful to Florian Heiss, Simone Kohnz, Melanie L{\"u}hrmann, and Gerit Meyer-Hubbert for their able research assistance. We appreciate the financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Sonderforschungsbereich 504) and by the EU (TMR-Project {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}Savings, Pensions and Portfolio Choice{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright}).",

year = "2001",

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doi = "10.1006/reec.2000.0241",

language = "English",

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AU - Börsch-Supan, Axel

AU - Reil-Held, Anette

AU - Rodepeter, Ralf

AU - Schnabel, Reinhold

AU - Winter, Joachim

N1 - Funding Information: This paper has profited greatly from discussions with Agar Brugiavini, Mike Hurd, Tullio Jappelli, Jim Smith and Gert Wagner. We are grateful to Florian Heiss, Simone Kohnz, Melanie Lührmann, and Gerit Meyer-Hubbert for their able research assistance. We appreciate the financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Sonderforschungsbereich 504) and by the EU (TMR-Project ‘‘Savings, Pensions and Portfolio Choice’’).

PY - 2001/3

Y1 - 2001/3

N2 - Germany has one of the most generous public pension and health insurance systems of the world, yet private savings are high and remain positive until 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 behaviour with public policy, notably tax and pension policy.

AB - Germany has one of the most generous public pension and health insurance systems of the world, yet private savings are high and remain positive until 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 behaviour with public policy, notably tax and pension policy.

KW - Household behaviour

KW - Life-cycle hypothesis

KW - Pensions

KW - Saving

KW - Social security

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EP - 38

JO - Research in Economics

JF - Research in Economics

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The German Savings Puzzle

Abstract

Keywords

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