Household Savings in Germany

Axel Börsch-Supan, Anette Reil-Held, Ralf Rodepeter, Reinhold Schnabel, University of Mannheim and Germany
Additional contact information
Axel Börsch-Supan: University of Mannheim
Anette Reil-Held: University of Mannheim
Ralf Rodepeter: University of Mannheim

Macroeconomics from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: 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.

JEL-codes: E (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2000-10-26
Note: Type of Document - Adobe Acrobat PDF; prepared on IBM PC; to print on PostScript; pages: 41; figures: included
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/mac/papers/0004/0004053.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Household Savings in Germany (2000)
Working Paper: Household Savings in Germany (2000)
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:wpa:wuwpma:0004053

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Macroeconomics from University Library of Munich, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by EconWPA ().