Living Standards in Retirement: Accepted International Comparisons are Misleading
Abstract
Accepted international assessments of living standards in retirement rely on comparing social pension incomes. These assessments conclude that European countries with contributory pension schemes provide retirees with higher living standards than liberal Anglo-American regimes in which many citizens rely on flat rate old age pensions. Comparisons based solely on pension incomes are potentially misleading because the living standards of retirees depend on their total economic resources, particularly their wealth. In this paper we make use of the wealth data in the German (SOEP) and Australian (HILDA) panels. Our revised ‘present value’ estimates of wealth suggest that Australian and German retirees have approximately the same living standards (mean and median), with much the same distribution (Gini).Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Duncker & Humblot, Berlin in its journal Schmollers Jahrbuch.
Volume (Year): 129 (2009)
Issue (Month): 2 ()
Pages: 309-319
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Web: http://www.duncker-humblot.de/index.php/zeitschriften/wirtschafts-undsozialwissenschaften/schmollersjahrbuch-1.html
Related research
Keywords:Find related papers by JEL classification:
- D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
- H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Thomas Y. Mathä & Alessandro Porpiglia & Eva Sierminska, 2011.
"The Immigrant/Native Wealth Gap in Germany, Italy and Luxembourg,"
BCL working papers
57, Central Bank of Luxembourg.
- Thomas Y. Mathä & Alessandro Porpiglia & Eva Sierminska, 2011. "The immigrant/native wealth gap in Germany, Italy and Luxembourg," Working Paper Series 1302, European Central Bank.
- Andreas Peichl & Nico Pestel, 2011.
"Multidimensional affluence: Theory and applications to Germany and the US,"
Working Papers
218, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
- Peichl, Andreas & Pestel, Nico, 2011. "Multidimensional Affluence: Theory and Applications to Germany and the US," IZA Discussion Papers 5926, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Peichl, Andreas & Pestel, Nico, 2010.
"Multidimensional Measurement of Richness: Theory and an Application to Germany,"
IZA Discussion Papers
4825, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Andreas Peichl & Nico Pestel, 2010. "Multidimensional Measurement of Richness: Theory and an Application to Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 295, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
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