Search results

We employ a life-cycle model with income risk to analyze how tax-deferred individual accounts affect households' savings for retirement. We consider voluntary accounts as opposed to mandatory accounts with minimum contribution rates. We contrast add-on accounts with carve-out accounts that partly replace social security contributions. Quantitative results suggest that making add-on accounts mandatory has adverse welfare effects across income groups. Carve-out accounts generate welfare gains for high and middle income earners but welfare losses for low income earners. In the presence of rare stock market disasters, individual accounts with default portfolio allocation crowd out direct stockholding and substantially reduce welfare.

The Panel on Household Finances (PHF) is a new panel survey on household finances and wealth in Germany conducted by the Deutsche Bundesbank. It covers the balance sheets, pension claims, savings, incomes and work histories of households, together with some information on consumption patterns, attitudes, expectations and standard demographic characteristics. This paper introduces the survey, highlights its main methodological features and presents initial results. The first wave of the survey was carried out between September 2010 and July 2011. It encompasses a net sample of 3,565 randomly selected households in Germany. Wealthy households are oversampled using micro-geographic indicators. The survey is designed to be a full panel. The micro data will be made available for scientific use. The next wave is scheduled for 2014. Aside from being a self-contained and comprehensive survey on household finances in Germany, the PHF is part of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS). This system of surveys collects ex ante harmonised micro data in every country of the euro area. -- Survey data ; household panel ; family economics ; household finance ; wealth distribution ; portfolio choice